Size: 4 1/4 in by 2 1/4 Medium: Molding Clay Completion Date: December 14 2021
Exhibition Text
For this project, I created a prototype of an automatic pet feeder. I wanted to create something to add simplicity to people’s lives coming from my own experience with family. I was influenced to bring this idea to life by Larry Murphy, an industrial designer. I created many prototypes, and this was the most functional one. The final prototype was made with oil-based clay and painted on it.
Inspiration
The biggest inspiration for this project is Larry Murphy of MIAD. I found inspiration in the stories he told us about how he became an industrial designer. He was able to share with us how he fell in love with industrial design. He also heavily guided us in our brainstorm process to help us come with our original ideas. The task was to create something that could help a pet in some way shape or form. That pet could be any kind of pet you desired. We created stories, maps, and sketched to find something we genuinely wanted to create. We were allowed to create freedom, something embedded in industrial design.
Planning
After Murph introduced our project we did some brainstorming revolving around pets. We created an empathy map there are 4 boxes one or see, think, hear, and feel. in each box a wrote things that related to the emotions when it comes to pets regardless if it’s through the pet’s perspective owner’s perspective or an outside perspective.
We also created a diagram and we had to start it with one word and write any thoughts we had afterword and whatever stemmed of of that. This helped me think of what I wanted to create.
We also created a story with pictures I created a story about my personal experience with my household pets. My cat knows that he gets fed breakfast at 7 am and I wake up for school a 6:45 so once I`m woke the cat will linger around the food bowl or hover over my mom until she gets up at 7 to feed him. someways he meows very loud to wake her up as well. Also, my grandma has trouble moving around and she has 3 cats and has an automatic feeder that will be beneficial to her because she can feed them without hurting herself.
The I We were also instructed to create 3 sketches of our idea. I noticed when I did this there was something that changed between each drawing whether it is an addition to it or I took something off. This was my initial sketch of the design I was going for it to be built like a small table. I labeled everything in the picture or labeled what it actually does. There are 3 tubes one or water food and snacks/ treats or the pet.
In my next design, I added more commentary that was too long to add for the labels. I think it would be smart to create multiple sizes. This would be good for people with smaller space in their house or smaller pets so they don't need it to be as big. I also want the machine to be as quiet as possible because I know my cat gets scared from loud noises and he might be scared to go near the machine if it's loud so that is important to me because there are our other pets who are the same way. my original idea was for it to be set up similar to an alarm clock when it comes to timing the feeding but willing sketching I came up with the idea of having a connected app so it can be used by people who are not around the pet at the moment maybe they work a lot or are out o town for the weekend.
This is the last design I sketched. Appearance-wise I change the look of the tubes and I also changed the look of the handle. Everything else is pretty much the same. I furthered the idea o the app. Within the app, you'll be able to set different amounts that you want from the machine dispenser. Maybe you want 8 ounces of water every 4 hours. You can do that all within the app! My cat experienced canned food over dry so I wanted to explore the idea of being able to incorporate that in the machine but I'm not quite sure how. It will also come with 3 bowls one for each tube that is also weight and connected to the app so it senses when food is low and can tell you how much your pet ate and over.
Process
With the molding clay, I need to create the base or body of the machine I molding it into a rectangle shape. I also microwaved it slightly so it was more movable because it’s kind o stiff
Next, I tried to recreate my sketch as best I could with the clay. I stuck it together with glue.
Next, I needed it to stand up as it did in my sketch I couldn’t create legs with clay because they wouldn’t be strong enough t hold up the weight so I used these small containers I had and they have the perfect height.
The prototype looked super plain to me and unfinished so I painted it I also used black and gray clay in some areas. the handle is made with black clay.
A couple days later when I thought I was finished I touched it up a little more. i decided to add mod podge all over it to give it a close because since I used clay and painted it it looked really dull. I also added small details just to make it look better. The next few pictures are just different angles of my sculpture.
Reflection
I know my product will be helpful to many different people regardless of their reason for use. I think it definitely solved the intended solution and many more in the process. A challenge I faced was actually creating the prototype. I've never worked with molding clay and I had trouble molding it the way I wanted initially. I'm glad we had Larry Murphy as a guide and inspiration he provided great insight and ideas when I presented the project to him. He was able to get us thinking out of the box from doing fun activities together. I enjoyed this project because industrial design interested me. If I were to do this again I would try to create my prototype with another material, maybe cardboard.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
This is a good example of this because we had to identify a problem and try to create something to fix it.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of inspiration?
Murph encouraged us to be creative and think outside the box.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
Every product we have came from someone who seen a problem that they felt needed to be fixed or simplified.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme around my inspiration is industrial design. Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Before knowing exactly what industrial design was i assumed it had something to do with engineering.