Plywood punk: a holistic approach to designing animated artifacts

Animated artifacts require many different electronic and mechanical components as well as appropriate drive software. This complexity has led to a kit-of-parts thinking in designing robotic assemblies. For example, Dynamixel or Lego Mindstorms provide designers, enthusiasts and children standard components from which they can assemble a multitude of creations. Despite the open-endedness of these kits, the most basic component parts such as servos present a designer with a set of constraints such as form that she cannot control. The underlying logic for these factors derives from mass-production rather than specific design requirements. The resulting black box becomes a factor around which design is created rather than an integral part of the completed artifact. In this paper, we explore the benefits of designing animated artifacts holistically. As an example, we compare the re-design of a servo in plywood and electronic components with a typical RC servo. This juxtaposition demonstrates how form-factors, materials and materiality, tactile and visual qualities and the performative aspects of a design can be reintroduced into design thinking for animated artifacts. From the example, we distill four guidelines for a design approach: (1) iterate, (2) explore material properties, (3) engage the performative aspects of the artifact, (4) cross disciplinary boundaries.