The Story of "Parking Lot Wars"
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On a trip through a fast food drive-thru on day I once noticed a group of raucous seagulls fighting over the remnants of fries discarded on the ground in the parking lot. It is probably an occurrence frequently observed by many. I reflected on just how many times I had even seen people feeding fries to birds. I pondered what Mother Nature might think of the lunacy of this breakdown in the natural way of doing things.
Initially I did not think there was enough to the story to make it an interesting project so I decided to make it what I call “awesome”, by adding some magnetic trickery to generate a visual “awe” factor for the uninitiated automata fan. The final result was this automata where the errant fry transfers from one gull's beak to another's. I imagine it to be very salty to their taste as they each drop back to the ground, which only gives the other gull another opportunity to steal it. They must suffer from short term memory loss since the memory of an overly salty taste is overcome by the instinct to devour most anything they see. |
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I had originally considered posting a video to make this piece part of a building project tutorial in the Learning Centre on this website, but tuning all the magnetics and moving parts to work smoothly was extremely challenging. It might be too frustrating for many so I am hesitating to do it,
As a point of interest there is a free video tutorial in the Learning Centre called "From Idea - To Proof of Concept - To Prototype" that describes how ideas are often flushed out to become projects, especially when they include challenging mechanisms like magnets. Development of the "Parking Lot Wars" was the subject of this tutorial. It includes a segment showing how the gulls that turn their heads were made. You might find it interesting.
Anyway next time you see seagulls fighting over fries perhaps you will think of this automata!
As a point of interest there is a free video tutorial in the Learning Centre called "From Idea - To Proof of Concept - To Prototype" that describes how ideas are often flushed out to become projects, especially when they include challenging mechanisms like magnets. Development of the "Parking Lot Wars" was the subject of this tutorial. It includes a segment showing how the gulls that turn their heads were made. You might find it interesting.
Anyway next time you see seagulls fighting over fries perhaps you will think of this automata!
Automata "Parking Lot Wars" Video
"Parking Lot Wars" Photo Gallery
Here is a collection of photos taken along the journey of making this piece.
