To everyone who saw the show...

...thank you very much for coming. I hope you enjoyed what us Goldsmithers have to offer. I'm currently working very hard on collecting and uploading examples of all my thinkings, doings, and drawings to my website so bare with me whilst I do this. In the meantime, have a scroll through this blog. If you would like to contact me do so at contact@ellie-edwards.com

(Also check out all the other Goldsmithy designery people because they are ace)

final machines

today I made things

Designing books is hard...

they can go blue too..

it was all silver (and GOLD)

DIY penny tests

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

penny machine #1

coin tosser

waxy

subtly changing the feel of the penny to distinguish it from other 'regular' pennies when getting money from purse

Created through testing and sorting

Below is a dial which can test if a penny is lucky or not, how lucky it is in percentage and what it is lucky for. This can work as an object on its own or it could be used as a tool by which to deduct a collection of pennies. The circuit is controlled by an arduino which is programmed to turn a servo motor by a random amount each time the circuit is complete. Even though it is obvious that this cannot seriously be testing for luck, does seeing a physical output still make it more believable?





Below is another way a penny can be tested for luck but this time as a portable object which can be worn. The user can test pennies as they find them on the ground, collecting the ones which light the green LED and discarding those which light the red LED. Again this object can be used as one in its own right or can be used as part of a larger process.



There are many crossovers within this all. For example the pin drop illustrated below can be used as a deduction tool for many pennies, yet at the same time can be used with just one penny to test if it is lucky or not: if it falls into a particular slot it is deemed lucky, if it falls anywhere else it is not.

Created through deduction

I have looked at the process of deduction in previous posts and here is another way of finding the lucky penny. This is a series of separate objects which can be used to deduct a set of coins until only the winning (lucky) penny is left. The problem that has arisen with this and with that of the coin pin drop is that it is very much based on chance; there is a possibility that more than one coin will be left, or equally none at all.

update

I am currently further exploring how luck can become something believable and how it can be given some form of logic; my aim? To ultimately quash superstition cynicism. I am doing this by creating a series of design iterations to question if and when luck becomes more than just a belief. These are taking the form of machines, sets of objects and processes.

it's magicnetic

Find a penny pick it up...

...and add it to the collection.

Coins on the run

Just a little illustration of a process/machine/thing which would determine the luckiest coin through a process of chance deduction.

Testing Luck

This is a prototype for a low tech machine which determines whether a coin is lucky or which of a selection of coins is the luckiest. The coin(s) are dropped in and fall through a set of pins. The coin which is deemed lucky is that which falls into a certain slot at the end of the run.

One of the illustrations for Smiths' magazine

Quantifying luck

I spent over THREE HOURS testing 40 coins to find the ultimate lucky coin champion - I divided the coins into groups of 20 and threw these groups 100 times. Each coin that landed on heads got thrown again and so on until one coin was left. This coin I marked with a red dot and repeated the process another 99 times. The aim of this is to discover whether by testing and quantifying luck, it becomes more believable.

One of these coins had nine dots by the end, another only had two. I gave one coin to Annie and one to Jane. The catch? I placed an extra seven dots on the losing (unluckiest) coin but told the receiving person that it was in fact the luckiest.

Will the real lucky coin bring the good fortune or is it enough to tell someone something is lucky?

Oh, and I'm not saying who has which. I wouldn't want to ruin things now would I?

Who is Lady Luck?

Me, that's who.

I spent the afternoon lasercutting these little things. I am going to place them in various locations: the green clovers will be placed anywhere at all around the city. The circles will be left in places where 'luck' plays a large role (betting, job centres, hospitals etc). The wooden clovers will be placed in the generic areas AND those which require luck.
It is my aim to investigate whether the form of an object has any influence on how people react to/with it in terms of how they are or can become objects of luck. The green clover for example is a universal symbol of luck and hence it should not matter where it is placed, its meaning should in theory remain the same. The plain circle however has no predetermined characteristic of luck affiliated with it, yet by leaving it in a place where good luck is required, or where good luck may arise, this characteristic may become attached to the object in a far more personal and subjective way.

lucky coin harvest

People blow on coins and dice to breathe luck into them. Surely then they become super lucky if you put them in a balloon filled with your breath?

ladybird ladybird fly away home...or don't. It's quite nice you being here.

This little lady(bird) has been in my room for quite some while now.
The question is however, is she lucky because she is a ladybird, extra lucky because she has been here so long, or unlucky because she is dying?

too busy to blog

I realise I havn't blogged in a while but this context report is rather time consuming.