Scribble Bot

The “Energetic” Scribble Bot

The first question my partner and I had to ASK ourselves was “How can we explore different ways of creating motion?” We experimented with different materials, weight and how the positioning of differently weighted objects effected motion.

We carefully measured out where we wanted to position and then tape our markers to assure the most stability for our drawing bot. We also knew that we wanted to hide the wires inside of the cup to make sure that they wouldn’t get in the way of our spinning, motor powered propeller. We were then given the word “Energetic” and were asked to create a drawing bot that would embody that characteristic. We had to IMAGINE what kind of movement and markings an energetic drawing bot would make. We knew we wanted our bot to be relatively fast, so we worked to BUILD our bot to be as even and stable as we could. It was easy to get it to move quickly because it didn’t have any uneven weight working against it.

(Lines became too smooth, not energetic enough!)

We also found that by taping the motor toward the top of the inside (to give the propeller enough height to spin without hitting anything) and by stabbing a glue stick to the vibrating point on the motor, it had a lot of power to ensure speed. We then found that the bot was almost so well measured and weighted, that the marks created by the markers were actually too smooth and instead, we wanted it to feel like the drawing had more energy to it as well. We had to EVALUATE why the markers were drawing so smoothly and ASK ourselves what we could do to make the lines more energetic.

Through trial and error, we eventually figured out that by attaching a popsicle stick to our glue stick, it proved to be just enough weight needed to help throw off the bot to create more energetic markings while not throwing it off so much that it effected the speed. WE FOUND THE PERFECT BALANCE – SUCCESS! In terms of decoration, we chose to dress our bot with green feathers and fuzzy pipe cleaners. I wanted to IMAGINE that it was an abstract, tiny and energetic creature. Lastly, we had to SHARE our final product with the rest of the class. It was fun to see how different and successful all the other designs were. The majority of the class guessed correctly, that our word was “Energetic”. Receiving that feedback felt like the final test to make sure that our Drawing Bot really portrayed what it was meant to.

IMG_8801-1pnouis   (Video Link)

What did you learn? Describe your learning process. What was most challenging?  What was most fun? I learned how to create energy and motor propelled movement through the use of a simple circuits! This process was brand new to me and this project turned out to be super fun with surprising end results. The most challenging part was the trial and error that it took to get the bots to move in a way that represented our special word. I thought that the entire process was lots of fun, especially seeing everyones creations at the end.

How did this activity connect (or not) to your prior knowledge of art and art education? (.25 points) How might you use and/or adapt this activity in an art classroom?
I’ve never worked on a project that involved me having to think creatively towards an objects movement so that was pretty exciting. There was so much creativity involved and the imaginative conceptual planning that it required was very similar to the way that I navigate my way through other creative processes.
This project would be such a fun activity to do with high schoolers. The simple circuit is simple enough that middle schoolers would be able to do it as well but the part that might be most challenging for them is trying to get the movement to match their given word. I anticipate that being a little too advanced and difficult for middle school. To simplify things for that age group, perhaps rather than giving them words that describe movement or emotion, they are given the challenge to fabricate an animal or made up creature. It would be fun for students to see there creations come alive through movement while taking a little bit of the pressure off of the technical aspects of how to make the movement match descriptive words.