Tinkering (on Sunday)
It all started in the grayness of January 2024. I'd had this project in mind for a good 10 years, and I decided to go for it with the vague objective of building a prototype that would show the living side of the machine, but with a different, unusual form.
The first results weren't glorious, but at least I was starting to understand how it would all work. And I decided to use just one motor, while many boxes have two: one to lift the lid and another to push the switch back. The first tests showed me that we could do both with a single motor, while keeping the possibility of creating a language with the opening movements (the living side).
A first shape experiment... strange
To escape the traditional box shape, I designed a first prototype with a, how to say... indefinable look. I think I had just figured out how to make revolution objects with Fusion. I painted it yellow, and the arm pink, because there was enough gray outside. You can see it all in action in this video.
First construction site: the electronics (the monster)
Following the yellow prototype, I had to integrate the electronics into the box. I used boards that already contain the components, breadboards that you connect as best you can with small cables, making immoderate use of the hot glue gun, while praying that it works.
Second construction site: the first prototype
Next, I had to make a real box, with a real lid guaranteed without tape, that would integrate the electronics, motor, switch and arm. I opted for brass hinges and tested skeuomorphic-inspired sounds – a path abandoned later, but at that moment, I was so happy! You can see it all in action in this video.
The first showable prototype (the FSP)
This first version was "good enough" as they say in Yonne, but using brass hinges screwed then glued with a hot glue gun didn't seem like an elegant solution to me. After watching dozens of tutorials dozens of times, I finally designed a hinge without brass and without glue, in pure plastic. Victory. I also reworked the electronic board to take it from a magma of wires to a somewhat clean board. All these efforts finally led to a first showable prototype. Immediately followed by another slightly smaller prototype that would do perfectly. I was finally able to gather all my ideas in a first video modestly named "Concepts".
Elium Studio - The brief
Elium Studio is one of the largest product design agencies: they design Withings products, Freebox, metro displays or McDonald's utensils and a host of other things. It's a studio with over 40 CES Awards and a Time magazine distinction (yes I know, you wouldn't guess it from the front door). I've known Pierre Garner for a long time and I always wanted Elium to work on the box design. After consulting his team, Pierre accepted the project and they were waiting for me for the brief.
The software (seriously)
During one of my frequent lunches with my friend Paul Guyot, we talked about the machine. For those who don't know him, he was the technical director of Violet, the company behind the Nabaztag. He's done lots of things since, but he was the one who in 2019 wrote the iconic Nabaztag services in Python for the TagTagTag kit. I showed him the prototype and he offered to help me with the software which, although seemingly simple, needed to be approached professionally. He also urged me to use Erlang but he advises me to do that for every new project. Erlang is a functional language, close to LISP. LISP was used by AI pioneers, including Marvin Minsky, the inventor of the useless box. Are you following? Anyway, we went with Erlang and now I just have to learn it (and so do you). Paul also proposed to give a conference about the machine at the Erlang festival in Berlin in October. His talk is here.
The workshops
Every year, I run a workshop at the Arbalète school in Paris (with my son Armand), during which children build a small electronic object that they can take home. Last year, it was a small robot made from plastic cups that lit up and turned its head when touched. This year and the year after, they made a useless box.
A second opportunity also arose in a kindergarten class where the poet Séverine Daucourt was in residence. The children composed poems that they said out loud, and the recordings were put "in the box", allowing them to be heard again infinitely.
Elium Studio - The result
Some time after the brief, I had an appointment with Elium for the presentation of the first work. I'm not going to show you all the paths. You might prefer others and now is not the time to doubt. The chosen design is Memphis-inspired. Not Memphis Tennessee but the Memphis movement. The Memphis group was founded in the 1980s around the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass (there's a podcast about him here). It's actually a happy coincidence because two years ago, I saw the exhibition dedicated to him at the Centre Georges Pompidou and bought the catalog whose title was "The Magic Object".
The electronics (seriously)
It was time to get serious about the electronics. That's when Philippe Debadier stepped in. Philippe Debadier is the engineer who designed the Nabaztag's electronics a long time ago and hundreds of other electronic boards since. He agreed to help me and made the one for the machine.
The brick machine
The brick machine was born from meeting Loïc Brun, LEGO Master finalist, during the exhibition of his creations at the Musée-Galerie Carnot in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne! It consists of 377 LEGO™ pieces, a specially designed electronic board, a servo motor, a speaker and, of course, a button. It can be assembled in two hours and there may still be some in stock here.
The sounds!
While I had a precise idea of the type of design and kind of behaviors for the machine, I was until recently very uninspired regarding the sounds. I was picking a bit randomly and without conviction from different sound banks. I was even so desperate that at one point I thought I would generate sounds with AI algorithms. I was at rock bottom. And one day my daughter Violette sent me a message (see opposite) telling me about Alexis Malbert. It was a revelation. First, I was very flattered but above all I was certain I had finally found the right madman.
The final version
And there you go, after several months of hard work I reached the final prototype. Equipped with its definitive electronic board, a battery, a servo motor and Paul's fabulous software, it was ready to travel the world or maybe even change it!
And... the marketing!
And, I can't do a "making of" without talking about the incredible art direction work (and photography) by Benjamin Rossignol and Pascale Moise on the different versions of the la-machine.fr website. And I can also thank the Launchboom team who finally made me understand what marketing is for (selling useless objects).
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