Kinetic Sculpture

Rube Goldberg Machine

Storytelling

Motion

Intra-Terrestrial: Kinetic Sculpture

Intra-Terrestrial is a Rube Goldberg Machine that narrates a poem I wrote about trauma, pain & growth.

Inquiry

The work explores how a Rube Goldberg machine could be used to express a narrative through motion and cause-and-effect interactions.

A Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction device that performs a simple task in a complex way. Each step triggers the next, creating a continuous sequence of motion. It’s named after Rube Goldberg, an American cartoonist, engineer, and inventor

Duration

12 Weeks

The ﬁrst time I met you, I was very scared. You were big, huge like a Goliath, who can destroy my entire being.

You’d follow me everywhere,

To the kitchen, to the bathroom, to my bed. You’d sleep beside me, you took the entire bed and gave me very little place.

I hated you. I wanted to run far far away from you.

But you wouldn’t leave my side. You looked very scary.

Time passed by, days were spent like minutes and sometimes years.

You were still there, as big as a bear, but now I was matching half your size.

I didn’t know what happened. You saw that too, didn’t you? You’d show up, right behind me everywhere I go. You’d interrupt me,

In the middle of the conversations, in front of my friends, and colleagues. Sometimes in parties, and sometimes in the middle of a date. You saw that too didn’t you? With that big one eye.

You knew what you were doing. One evening,

I woke up in the middle of the night, remember?

You weren’t there, leaving the entire bed to me.

I sat beside you, somehow, I felt you. I held your hand, that night, I wasn’t scared anymore, I shared your tears. And when I looked up, wiping my face,

I felt lonely, even though, I hated you.

I were you

You were me.

I searched for you everywhere, in the kitchen, in the bathroom. There you were, sitting in the balcony, crying. I saw myself growing as I approached you.