Mechanical HeadsInspirational Artist: Rube Goldberg

Waverly-Shell Rock Sr. High

Art Explorations

RUBE GOLDBERG

RUBE GOLDBERG Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer

Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author. Reuben “Rube” Goldberg was born in San

Francisco, on the 4th of July 1883. After graduating University of California Berkeley, with a degree in engineering, Rube went on to work as an engineer for the City of San Francisco Water and Sewers Department.

RUBE GOLDBERG Rube, an avid cartoonist, decided after six months,

engineering was not his calling. He shifted gears and instead became an office boy in the sports department of a San Francisco newspaper.

In this capacity, he began to submit drawings and cartoons to the editor, until he was finally published. Success was immediate, and Rube soon moved from San Francisco to New York where he began working on drawing daily cartoons. This led to syndication, and the rest is history.

RUBE GOLDBERG Rube was a beloved national figure as well as an often-

quoted radio and television personality during his sixty-year professional career.

Best known for his INVENTIONS, Rube’s early years as an engineer informed his most acclaimed works.

A Rube Goldberg contraption – an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals – takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated.

RUBE GOLDBERG

The promise and pitfalls of modern technology make Rube Goldberg’s inventions even more relevant now than when they were originally created.

From think-tanks in Silicon Valley, the New York Times, and Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, hardly a day goes by without the name Rube Goldberg being invoked. In fact, Rube Goldberg is an adjective in Webster’s Dictionary.

RUBE GOLDBERG

A documentary film of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is set for release in 2009. A coffee table book of Rube’s work is being published by Abrams in 2010 – along with a calendar and children’s pop-up book.

At a time when the U.S. is looking to inspire young minds, Rube Goldberg’s legacy represents the best in American innovation, humor and unconventional thinking; an inspiring model for us all.

RUBE GOLDBERG

Simplified Pencil Sharpener

RUBE GOLDBERG

Dodging Bill Collectors

RUBE GOLDBERG

Picture snapping machine

RUBE GOLDBERGPeeling Potatoes.

RUBE GOLDBERG - Review

The legendary cartoonist, graduate engineer, and Pulitzer-Prize winner Rube Goldberg, became famous for his humorous drawings of incredibly complex machines performing very simple tasks.

In the words of Rube Goldberg, his machines were “a symbol of man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to achieve minimal results.”

Examples

RUBE GOLDBERG

W-SR Student Examples

Student Examples

Student Examples

Student Examples

Things to incorporate into drawing. The 5 senses (see, hear, smell, taste, feel) Various “mechanical” activities (chewing,

breathing, swallowing, hearing, seeing, etc) Brain functions (cognitive functions) Things you Remember (“memory bank?”) Survival functions Interests and hobbies that are in your head.

What type of things fill your thoughts?

Things to incorporate into drawing. Power source? How do you see? How do you hear? How do you chew/swallow/taste/talk? Ventilation – nose & mouth – lungs? How does you brain communicate with the rest of

your body? Try to think of creative ways to solve these issues! ** CONSIDER MAKING A WEB FOR THIS!!

Parts of Your Brain and What They Do!

Process Start with thumbnail sketches on newsprint I will draw your profile (12”x18”) using the

overhead and white paper. Continue to develop ideas and decide how

they link together inside your head. Transfer your sketching onto the profile

paper. Reinforce drawing with details, shading, etc.

Video-Honda Motor Company AllPhysics.wmv This to shall pass