The New York Times: Any busy morning routine can feel like a bit of a tap dance. But recently, Joseph Herscher turned getting ready for the day into a comically intricate work of choreography.
Mechanized choreography, that is. Herscher, known online as Joseph’s Machines, has collected millions of social followers with videos of his pointedly inefficient chain-reaction machines. He’s a Rube Goldberg for the digital age.
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This is so interesting in its many connects to live entertainment, theater, and also our classes at CMU, since we will be making one of these later this year. First off, the live aspect is unique compared to all of the content online, and so much better for being live, just like live theater still has that appeal and impact that recorded theater or movies just can't have. Secondly, speaking of theater, I think the imperfections of it is what interests and thrills me the most. The fact that it only worked 25% of the time, and that the audience got to see the successes along with the failures is really cool to me, and something I would love to watch---its not a polished product, but instead a work in progress constantly. Finally, this is a good source of inspiration for our Rube Goldberg machine, although I don't think we are allowed or want to have a human directly involved.
As any undergraduate at CMU school of Drama, I have complex feelings about the rube goldberg machine. This guy does make me wonder if incorporating a person into one of those machines would make the process harder. A person’s movements are probably not quite as repeatable as say, a marble running down a ramp, but on the other hand, if something were to be slightly off, a person might be able to account for that small difference in the action. It really makes the rube goldberg machine even more analogous to a stage play where there are a bunch of moving parts and everything needs to fall in place pretty perfectly every time. Though hopefully the success rate of a typical show is a little higher than 25%. The idea of trying to travel a giant machine like this around the country sounds like quite the feat, but I hope this team succeeds in making it happen.
I was drawn to this article because of the fact that we as first year Design and Production students have to build a Rube Goldberg machine in our second semester. I've heard so much about the infamous Rube project that I felt like any information I could gather ahead of time was important. What I found instead in this article was a fun, whimsy-filled artist who I feel like is the antithesis of AI. His designs are overly complicated and don't work most of the time, but there is a beauty and an art in it. In his work, there is something so innately human that AI could never even begin to try and replicate it. I've never seen a Rube Goldberg machine with a human as a central part of it, which make Herscher's designs and live performance aspects of his work even more interesting.
Setting up a live performance with a known overall success rate of 25% is actually mind boggling to me and I feel most of the entertainment industry would agree. Although we are always coming up with new and creative solutions to problems, we always test solutions to guarantee that they will succeed when we are finally presenting our work in front of an audience. Although I love the playfulness of these machines that bring a relatability and feasible real world application to engineering, not being able to present a functioning machine destroys any magic that the machine holds. Rube Goldberg machines are supposed to defy what the human mind thinks is feasible as step after step succeeds. Bringing a machine with a 25% success rate just feels unfinished but one could argue showing the problem solving is a beauty within itself. Overall I would love the opportunity to build another Rube machine that has a good success rate and would still defy what people thought possible.
I used to watch his videos on youtube during the covid lockdown and absolutely love his crazy machines. I have always been interested in Rube Goldberg machines because of the fun mechanics and overcomplication of simple tasks. Knowing that as a first year DP our class will soon get the challenge to build one of these machines, I like that this article came across our page. The idea that only 25% of the time the performance works but still putting it on live is terrifying but also seems so fun to get to watch the trouble shooting as an audience member. One of my favorite parts of live theatre is the improvisation and problem solving that we do to keep a show running smoothly and this really highlights that. I’m hoping he does manage to bring the show on tour because I will definitely be trying to go if it comes anywhere near us.
I love when people make Rube Goldberg machines for random everyday activities. You can tell how much thought and smarts went into each machine that Herscher made. When humans use technology to make silly things and add a little whimsy into the world, it is worth it. I appreciate how Herscher is also creating chain reaction starter packs for kids to get them started early on thinking about how things move. The fact that Herscher took time to answer questions about his machines in between takes at his live unveilings is wonderful. I really appreciate when creators take the time to tell people how things are made and to show them how much work really went into what they made. A lot of people see these silly machines and think that there is not much thought that goes into creating them when that is just not true.
Rube Goldberg machines are so satisfying and creative. When I was younger I used to make these sorts of contraptions in my basement with my sister. Making machines like this can be a good way to get into problem solving. In my opinion some of the best rube goldberg machines accomplish tasks with no human interaction, but Joseph’s machines act like a tool or a friend to help him accomplish a task. Some of my favorite rube goldberg esk machines are ones that incorporate multiple mechanisms like dominoes and marble tracks. The human element reminds me more of tv shows like Wallace and Grommet's the wrong trousers or the suit up scenes from the old Thunderbirds Are Go Show where characters are standing still or in motion and the mechanisms are helping them with tasks to do with dressing or walking. Just thinking about those makes me want to rewatch a bunch of the Rube Goldberg machine videos on the internet that I used to be obsessed with.
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