161 87 10MB
English Pages 128 [132] Year 2013
HINGS COME APART aca
Todd McLellan
y
i
a
q
3,
2
es
THINGS Polen
DOWN
COME MANUAL
FOR
APART MODERN
LIVING
Todd McLellan
175 color illustrations
fuss Thames
& Hudson
and 21,959 components
On the cover: Macintosh Computer, 1990;
Apple;component count: 928
mh
Pagés 2:and’4: Fire Extinguisher, 1999; _. Pyrene; component.count: 28 me Pages 6-7: Rotary Telephone, 1980s;
pt
Northern Electric} component count: 148.
Pages 8—9:Flip Clock, 1970s; Sanyo;
* Component count; 446. 3
a,
i
Ay
Fi
a
J
ao
ae
“Things Come Apart © 201g Thames & Hudson
«. Itd} London Set
>
ye mirevoe us Bie ieCas 1 Dee
a
eS
sinamoay
~~~ ?
E
>
-
;
i
Photographs © 2013 Todd McLellan
ae
+
ah
8
Sait Rights Resérvéd. No part af thispublication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form orby any
1. Pull pin. Hold unit
1. Dégoupiller tenir l'appareil en
upright,
position
oud
verticale.
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, . Yecording or any other information st rage and © | & retrieval system, without prior perm iision in-writings"
© from the publisher. *
SPE
—
-
SOT J
uf
ra Pind
r
‘3 4
-
APA NEE
First published in 2019 in hafdeover in thé'United*. States of America by Thames & Hudsonnc.,¢ (°° 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, Néw York 10110 #6 : : S ‘Pod bel Oe 3 7 Lg /# 3 re ~ . thamesandhudsontsa.com
+ Y ee a ie Se _ Library of Catalog CardardNumber20129%488 eiesey ofCongress Conmpots Capslog po oe ¢
pS Le ,
E-
Tg
a
4
uby
— ~-€&C Offsef Printing Co.Ltd
1: az
:
i
=
ISBN 978-0°00-51676-8s -
2.Degager le boyau. Reculer de 8 pieds |. (2,4 métres) diriger lers la base de la flamme.
Lf
v
a
8’. Aim at base of
P*
ft
~ goo,
a.
a
er
“
oa
gs
bs
i
Hil Ht 3.Squeeze lever
S|
fi =,
ae
Szs|
é.1] iG
and sweep
Side to side.
3. Appuyer sur le
levier et diriger de droite 4
10
We All Have ADHD These Days... Todd McLellan
12
Mechanical Pencil
13
Stapler
14
Swiss Army Knife
62
64
Desk Lamp Telescope
66
Toaster
68
Blender
70
DVD Player
72
Laptop Computer
74
Typewriter
76
Printer
78
Life Lessons Learned Through Tinkering
18
Dial Combination Lock Digital Watch
19
Mechanical Watch
20
Lensatic Compass
22
Handheld GPS Unit
24
Flashlight
82
Accordion
26
Smartphone
84
Sewing Machine
28
Computer Mouse
86
Chainsaw
30
External Hard Drive
88
Snowblower
16
Gever Tulley, founder of Tinkering School
32
Handheld Games Console
go
Keyboard
33
Games Console
92
Microwave Oven
34
iPod 2
94
Espresso Machine
96
Carpet Steamer
36
Walkman Hair Straighteners
98
Push Lawnmower
37
Hair Dryer
100
Children’s Wagon
38
iPad 2 102
Taking Apart The Past
40
The Repair Revolution Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit
35
44 46 48 50
52
54 56 58 60
Penny Bendall, freelance conservator
ite
106
Record Player
110
Bicycle Upright Piano
Flip Clock
117
Two-seater Light Aircraft
Rotary Telephone Mantel Clock
122
Falling Apart: The Future
SLR Camera
Dr Joseph Chiodo, inventor of Active
Digital SLR Camera
Disassembly technology
Digital Video Camera
Video Projector Power Drill
128
Index, Component Counts, Acknowledgments
_—
. 4 t a
Todd McLellan
New objects become old objects faster than ever before.
When taking objects apart, I organize the pieces in
The waste and expense of having to replace everything
separate containers in the sequence in which they are
in your life after just a few years of use is exasperating.
removed. So, for example, when dismantling a phone, all
The new ‘teardown’ movement in technology challenges
the headset pieces stay together in one tray and the ringer
our disposable culture by exposing just what we are
pieces stay together in another. These trays are then kept
throwing away. But for me, this has been a decades-long
in order, ready for layout.
project; I have been refining the art of disassembly since
that none of the pieces is lost in the process. The thrilling
childhood. As a kid, Iwas caught in my room taking apart
part about disassembling an object myself, even before
my toys with a hammer, and in secondary school I almost
the photography, is the opportunity to understand the
completely disassembled my 1985 Hyundai Pony car.
manufacturer’s challenge. I gain a basic understanding
If an object interested me, it would soon be in pieces.
of how the item works and, in turn, a greater respect for it.
For this book, I have taken apart fifty design classics.
Iam very careful to make sure
When everything is finally separated, I begin arranging
They include brand-new modern objects and also vintage
the elements on a neutral background. Unless Iam doing
items that are no longer widely used. All of the objects
a ‘drop’ - a description of which follows - each object I
I disassembled for these photographs were in working
disassemble is laid out in the same fashion. First, I position
order or needed little care to resuscitate them. It fascinates
the main component, usually the exterior shell. After that,
me that older objects were so well built, and were most
placing the parts in a beautiful shape is a bit of a puzzle,
likely put together by hand. These items were repaired
and I repeatedly rework the layout to make each piece fit
when broken, not discarded like our devices are today.
in the space. If it takes one-and-a-half days to take an object
Older objects were created to give people service and
apart, it takes just as long, if not longer, to lay it all out
enjoyment for many years, but the new technology that
and achieve the right composition.
replaces them will itself be replaced even more rapidly.
Even the smallest objects take three days or more.
I wanted to get inside these once-treasured, now rejected
What comes in a tiny case may fill a surface 3 metres square,
objects and show the world their quality and beauty.
(32 square feet) so anticipating the size of the spread in
10
advance is very difficult. This is especially true with the latest
way), but since then I have had more success dropping the
technology. As manufactured objects have evolved, they
pieces in groups and then layering the resulting images
have become far more complex. Components are becoming
in post-production, usually in foreground, mid and
more numerous, even as they decrease in size. The full size
background sections. At first I tried light triggers to set
of the disassembly, with every single component laid out,
off the camera and flash, but now I get the best results
can be huge in relation to the original object. It is as if the
by watching the pieces fall and pressing the shutter at the
true scale of the object is revealed only when it is taken apart.
meee. moment that I see something exciting happen.
The objects in this book were photographed in two
The final object in this book, the Zenith CH 650
ways. In the first - mentioned above - I stayed faithful to
aircrait, is the largest I have photographed to date. I did
the assembly and tried to lay out the pieces in the order
not disassemble it, however; it was shot at the manufacturer’s
in which they were revealed. This creates an image that
hangar, where I could explore the aircraft and talk with
is quite precise and formal, almost like a family portrait.
the people who designed and assembled it. Piece by piece,
The camera is set up directly above, shooting downwards.
they took me through how everything worked. I came
The only lighting is one flash head, which is bounced offa
to fully understand how the plane is constantly being
large reflector above the camera. This bounced lighting leads
improved. The best part is that this is a kit plane, so
to a soit quality while providing some depth to the scene.
people can experience the assembly process on their
I think of the second method as setting the parts free.
own. It exemplifies how aircraft are almost infinitely
The pieces are placed on a platform near the ceiling, then
renewable and reusable. The shell stays the same but the
dropped. They are arranged so that, as they fall through the
programming changes. All things in life should be like this.
camera frame, their appearance conforms closely to what
Things Come Apart has been an exercise in discovery,
I had in mind. Using the newest and fastest strobe-lighting
and I’m not sure where it will end or what I will explore
technology, I am able to freeze the pieces mid-frame.
next. Thanks for coming along on the journey so far.
Originally I tried to capture all of the falling pieces in a single shot (one of the phone images was done in that
il
wei
ee @# & & @&@ & &
= oo=
Mechanical Pencil, 1997 Rotring Component count: 16
5-12
Stapler, 2002 Isaberg AB Component count: 31
Swiss Army Knife, 2000s Victorinox
Component count: 38
S-14
Pama as a ae t Neen
aes allelessacsali a) ¥ Mi Li
Combinaison: 3 tours;
vers fa droite, pa baer Tur left one full tumégs
“above no, to no.
1 tour complet vers la gauche
en passant le premier net
pointant len
Turn right and pull
shackle at 9
Tournez vers la
tirez l'arce au apres avolr ointe le
0%.
Dial Combination Lock, 2000s
EIST Component count: 20
S-17
Mechanical Watch, 1990s
Digital Watch, 2010
Vostok
Raised By Wolves/Furni Component
(REN
rests
it nenamanemele
Component count: 130
count: 57
4
After battey
replacement. contact
Ac with, om battery(—) using ~
| tweezers
| aD b
Lensatic Compass, 2000s
Indian Nautical Instruments Component count: 33
s-20
' ee
ae
F0-09F008:N/d
“9/0
HOUOUUUNH EHONNN RCL TITTLE
+. 1Z0Z0A OVS 641
tralolutions
ES62UL256-45TC 1OO9BC6F7TAL
3 |ADOI.0 0110
MAGELLAN
veeeuens Cebit
TX. G)RX
es (asl
HO'N/S SSLESO
d¥0D OVW NVTIE SWALSAS Sdd STE YOOOLNO/ANTUVN'
Handheld GPS Unit, 2002
Magellan Component count: 42
@
auit:
ENTER
—
MENU
PWR:
Flashlight, 2002 Maglite Component count: 37
TT
‘ \ \\\
\
S-25
Smartphone, 2007
BlackBerry Component count: 120
$00-262¥ | -8d
“i
-26
a
UT WE
73000 O 4021
|
|
:
ATC
t
aavranmuaiigy ower? oracle SKUF: 68770. HLH Le
$3 sin
¢
«; 3° x
ePoeaeoe at
eeee eag
ee a ge
e
Computer Mouse, 2006
Apple Component count: 50
5-29
External Hard Drive, 2000s LaCie Component count: 151
LONE
WORD TEL
OE
St iD Mh LAPT RD es
view a ay De
$-30
nats rece eT Oy
Games Console, 1999 Sega Component count: 326
Overleaf: iPod 2, 2002
Apple Component count: 80
Handheld Games Gonsole, 2010
Walkman, 1982
Nintendo
Sony
Component count: 206
Component count: 370
CPI +43J
Me)
5 =58 MADE IN JAPAN
B : istimant ia
Hair Straighteners, 1989 CHI
Component count: 91
Push theresetbU-
tlon ifnot turn on.
~~
wD ~
>
c-
Hair Dryer, 2006 Parlux Component count: 94
iPad 2, 2011
Apple Component count: 174
5-38
Kyle Wiens is the co-founder and CEO of iFixit, a free online repair community renowned for its product teardowns and
open-source service manuals.
#1
The things we own are the product of great effort. Creating
his house, he had carefully placed the internal parts of
a thing requires the gathering together of a team of experts
computers on display. Separated from its plastic housing, |
from many disciplines. Over a period of years, they design
a PowerBook logic board became an intricate piece
the product, select materials, engineer innumerable
of artwork, resembling a living, breathing city viewed
solutions, assemble a global supply chain, and create
from an aircraft flying high above.
manufacturing plants. Finally, when the design is complete
Although I could not read the Japanese text that
and the constituent parts are gathered together, the product
Kodawarisan had produced to accompany his teardowns,
is assembled. Electronics, in particular, are put together by
his photographs told their own stunning story. The
an army of young, mostly female, Asian factory workers,
component parts of brand-new gadgets were showcased
whose nimble fingers fly as they insert screws, route
against a white background. Kodawarisan was able to
cables, and snap parts together. Fingers dance to a quiet
represent cumulative decades of engineering effort in
song with a rhythmic, repetitive beat. The product grows
a single photo. Complex electronics appeared simple
incrementally, piece after piece. Deliberately, methodically,
and impossibly clean. And like a pebble tossed into
many people in many different places make sure that
a still pond, his photographs of teardowns sent waves
the product comes together.
through the internet. ‘Look, here it is, they exclaimed.
The undoing of this work is known as a ‘teardown’.
The first teardown I remember seeing was in Japan.
‘The new, opened and bared for all to see.’
Since those days I have since stripped hundreds of
The artist responsible referred to himself as Kodawarisan,
devices to their naked logic boards - my organization,
or ‘The Fanatic’. A doctor working with the Red Cross,
iFixit, has built a reputation, in part, on its teardowns of new
Mitsunobu Tanaka had an uncanny knack for obtaining
devices. Yet I did not originally pick up a screwdriver with
Apple products early, taking them apart, and showing the
the intention of sharing the magic inside. Rather, I started
rest of us what made them tick. His hobby was applying the
to disassemble gadgets for the most pragmatic of reasons.
same precision he used in his medical practice to reversing
They were broken, I needed them to work, so I fixed them.
the manufacturing processes of products. When I visited
There was no great flash of insight, no stroke of genius that
40
started me on this road. Beginning to produce teardowns
universe’s way of inexorably disassembling everything
was an unexpected consequence of my quest to restore
that we have made, atom by atom.
order, to restart things that would not start, and to make
broken or failed hardware whole again.
Too often, we do not fight back. We throw things away when they break, squandering the years of work and thought and mining and manufacturing that went
into them. But this behaviour carries a penalty; if we throw our hands in the air and submit to entropy, we stagnate. We forget tha + it is solving problems that makes us human and points the way to our collective future. In his novel, The Time Machine, H. G. Wells depicts
a future in which humanity has forked into two species: the
Morlocks, troglodyte engineers who understand machines Life has always presented a series of problems for us
and can build and maintain them, and the childlike Eloi,
to solve. The way we live today in the developed world _
who have perfected
the art of lethargy, passing their days
depends on a series of solutions found long ago to the
in decadence and nights sleeping in buildings that are
most basic human problems: we have road systems to
slowly decaying around them. The book was published
get us from place to place, electricity and oil wells to supply
in 1895, at a time when steam engines were powering
our heating, piping to bring us water and carry away sewage,
industry and Karl Benz’s internal combustion engine
grocery stores for when we are hungry and hospitals for
was set to change transportation forever, and it describes
when we are ill. Now, with most of our material needs taken
a seismic societal shift that Wells was one of only a few
eare of by established infrastructure, we no longer need to
to foresee. At the end of the nineteenth century, the
invent and make things to guarantee our survival. Instead,
common citizen had no more clue as to how a steam
we must maintain the advantages we have, and the things
engine functioned than most of us have about how
we have already made. Our real battle is with entropy, the
our mobile phones work today.
Intuitively designed products do not require much,
retrace your steps looking for an alternative solution.
if any, thought to operate. They just work. The easy,
You know that there is further to go, but in which direction?
natural choice is to use things until they stop working,
Broadening your horizon, you look for additional solutions.
then toss them aside and rely on someone else to design
This is where the creativity begins. You ask yourself, ‘If Iwere designing this, how would I have held it together? The answer is there in front of you. The challenge is to step back and identify the problem to which it was the solution.
50ssibilities opens Up. g how a thing works
Ss you to adapt it..
Learning to repair is an incremental, stair-stepped
process. Flashes of insight open up great new possibilities, and the more designs you see, the more products you have examined, the better at it you become. The process
of disassembling products requires an assimilation of the a replacement. To the unquestioning and indifferent among
minds of the creators. If your computer monitor will not
us, advancing technology inevitably becomes more and
turn on, research on the internet reveals that a common
more like magic. Put clothes into the washing machine,
cause of that behaviour is a blown capacitor - a diagnosis
add soap, rinse, repeat. But who will design and maintain
that sounds like gibberish at first. But then you read further:
our world full of amazing things? What happens when the clothes stop getting clean? We must resist the urge
to lapse into Eloic laziness, with its assumption that others
will always step in and save us from the consequences of our own lack of curiosity. Fighting back against entropy is not the automatic or even the easy choice. To do so
The soul of the creator is imbued Se ee we glean vnisd om from inderstanding its workings.
requires a new approach or aspiration in life: to ‘grok’, or truly understand, the machine. Once you grok your possessions, a world of possibilities
about why computers have capacitors, and how to locate
opens up. Knowing how and why a thing works enables
a capacitor in your machine. And there is a strong empirical
you to adapt it to meet your needs. When you have grokked
element, too. You learn that a bulging top and deposits
your washing machine, fixing it when it overflows is as
of dried electrolyte on a capacitor are indications that it
simple as cleaning out a clogged drain. Once you know
has failed. When you work out how to replace the failed
what is gumming up the works, you simply need to get
capacitor, then power up the monitor and it lights up
inside and sort it.
again, you smile. For a moment, you have thought like the
Disassembly can be by rote. You remove one screw, and
engineer who designed it. You have grokked the machine.
look for the next. In a sense you become a machine yourself,
When you next take something apart, you will
proceeding methodically, allowing yourself to flow through
remember how you pried open the monitor case with
a predefined process to open up another machine. Unscrew,
guitar picks because there were no screws visible on the
unscrew, remove part. Repeat.
outside. You will remember how you had to trace cables
But then you hit a snag. A place where the next step
to their sources and pull them up straight to detach their
is not obvious. An interruption in the flow. You pause, pick
fragile connectors. And when you hit a snag again, you will
up the thing you are investigating, and look for a new angle.
push on, because you will remember the euphoric sense
Like an explorer who has reached a dead end in a cave, you
of satisfaction that comes with making something work.
AZ
Repair is the process of connecting mind and thing; you are both creator and fixer. With simple tools screwdrivers, spanners, magnetic sorting trays, pry tools
of varying thickness and hardness - fixers pick away at a device’s engineering, pulling back the curtain and opening the ‘black box’. Sometimes, the product seems to exhibit
disdain for the fixer, as if the maker is saying, ‘I glued this
When we understand the problem and craft a solution,
together because I do not want you to know my creation,
we reclaim mastery over our lives, breaking outside the
In those circumstances fixers must evolve, finding more
bubble that manufacturers have cast us into, hoping
powerful tools, such as industrial-strength heat guns and
for repeated sales. Looking closer, you will see that your
dental picks; they must even craft special screwdrivers to
refrigerator is frosting over because the heating coil has
unlock proprietary screws. But at other times a device seems
worn out. It functioned for years, but eventually the base
to be carefully designed with the fixer in mind, so that it
material failed. Replacing the broken part will cost far less
can be lovingly maintained through the years. Hand-twist
money and probably no more time than replacing the
knobs and easily opened latches invite you in, indicating a
entire refrigerator - and you will have beaten the problem
machine that is intended to journey with its owner through
instead of letting it beat you.
a lifetime. With such benevolent products, designed to
Life without conflict is a fraud. We all have to fight
be disassembled and reassembled, maintenance is as
entropy, and refusing to engage in that battle is to ignore
intuitive as their daily use. The best-designed products
what makes us human. Every time you fx something that
are robust and intended to last, rather than be dumped
entropy has broken, you claim a small victory.
prematurely in the landfill. Human and machine should wear in together, gaining experience and texture along the way.
The soul of the creator is imbued in the machine, and
Outsourcing repairs and allowing others to fight our battles by proxy is a short-term solution, but again the opportunity to test our own abilities is lost. At stake
as users we glean wisdom from understanding its workings.
is our own soul, the problem-solving core of our humanity.
To disassemble is to learn, to mend, and to move forward.
Retaking control means taking our stuff apart, seeing what
Understanding the things we own allows us to do what
makes it tick, and learning to read the minds of its creators.
we do best: solve problems.
Often, the solution is as simple as replacing a heating coil.
What happens when we do not know how things work?
Sometimes, the mend will take a great effort. Regardless,
We are cut off, trapped in a modern wasteland where we can
we must keep fixing: for the beauty of a teardown, for the
only try to solve problems with our credit cards rather than
satisfaction of a repair success, and for the sake of the
with our hands and brains. Things fail, and in a world that
basic human drive to make the world work in a better way.
no longer encourages us to seek practical solutions we toss
To live well is to press forward. Seeking out new
them aside, looking to advertisements to tell us what to buy
challenges and opportunities fulfils us and makes us into
next. To throw something away is to give up on problem
better people. Every challenge that we overcome grants us
solving, and in so doing we cast aside an important aspect
greater perspective and prepares us for the next challenge.
of that which makes us human.
The solutions we craft become a part of us, making us better
A refrigerator that ceases to operate should be viewed
as we improve the world around us.
as a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down by entropy. Saying ‘Tam not willing to solve this problem’ is not acceptable
because it forsakes our roots and endangers our future.
43
Megas
rt
fe)
Oe
oO
se"
n
je)
ice)
2.
S
o
1S)
5
a)
"3
¢
ies
o
p>
=e 5
Be ea
-
METS
M - 44
IR
I NE
PNRM
a
uv
a O
T
a
|
° SUEVEIERGD CIGD” EI RQE —} | GND BIER EDCIEICIGS VED , EDCICDBVE
RIGIEJEIEVE o
Flip Clock, 1970s
Sanyo Component count: 426
Rotary Telephone, 1980s
Northern Electric Component count: 148
V- 48
”
ND a %
y
ss!
Mantel Clock, 1928
E. Ingraham Component count: 59
M-51
SLR Camera, 1973
Asahi Component count: 576
Overleaf: Digital SLR Camera, 2012 Sony Component count: 580
M-52
Pi
Digital Video Camera, 2005 Canon Component count: 558
UHH
3
Video Projector, 1961 Keystone Component count: 355
M-59
Power Drill, 2006
Ryobi Component count: 216
M-60
Desk Lamp, 2002 IKEA Component count: 73
M- 62
M-63
#
©
4y
o)
6s &
b———-] ©
NSierra EHT rA|
Sessa
ni
;
|
mmmOxe es
ee
'90000@86
a
a a
00 Telescope, 20 Tasco Component count: 223
i
i ¥ F
i
1
:
i
Hy
©6060
O
PaOees
»
Toaster, 1970s
Sunbeam Component count: 151
“1ITiwe
Wii ne
NM -66
@
a
Staubesm pa DIANT SHADE CONTROL Peters
oane
TY
&
ae
wm
. ©
®
TT
|
|
OF
Osterizer cyclomatic ,
on
:
] .
Blender, 1960s Oster Component count: 147
M-68
M-69
M-70
DVD Player, 2005 Toshiba Component count: 195
M-71
5
a
“+
F&
a
=
|
Laptop Computer, 2006
Apple Component count: 639
/
M-73
:
«SR
he. )
—
Typewriter, 1964
Smith-Corona Component count: 621
M - 74
SMITH-CORONA
ey Wadd11D ak ’CONIC Fat ACCC — LI} En ORT SR
ahs vu}:
i:
aw
eet fy
ui a
Ww wW ” W\e
om
ety
on j | -Oa "
; 2)
i
i
1 1
a su] WW
7M mf iy bs 1
80 oO| BO yreeeereuy 70 be reer te trtibitelead stb
60 50
£ DOOLOUUWUNO
tet stelebePotetetetera
40
@ AoW) LEAR AT YAY At NOK PI B,m8
;
AY \eSAKA SsKes)
:
AP
ASAC ALAS
e (2 |
reer
wees 32
V8
NC DOGO
Mader 30 20 a I datebebeeeiotabelere
x{ Pa iiebe re bed
ley = tee f
4 " $ costae
Ne aaa
ep mma
ec Me Ms oe titans dtl ;
&
ts
ie sates
=
°
eectenre,
oe oor
Oe
a,
mann vil
ama
+
y
/ lv
.
y
y
? :
i)
v
Y
ere) eff
.P
Gever Tulley, a former software engineer, is founder of Tinkering School, which runs week-long camps at which children learn how to use power tools to build, solve problems, manipulate new materials, and re-purpose old ones.
Tinkering School began around ten years ago when
have around 480 applications for those fifty spots. Parents
I realized that the formative childhood events of my
clearly have a deep desire to hand over their kids to this
generation just weren't available to children any more. First-
crazy guy in California. Kids come from all over the world.
time parents I knew would say, ‘Well, I barely survived, so
California is a very entrepreneurial environment, and
I can’t let my children go and play in the woods, or use tools
that helps. It’s a shock to me sometimes that people don't
in the garage. At a dinner one evening I said, ‘I should open
feel empowered to run with their idea and see where it goes,
a summer camp where kids can come and be kids and just
instead of carefully plotting every step and making sure that
use some tools. I ended up with six kids signed up over that
everything is going to be okay. If you just run off and make
dinner conversation and a sort of commitment to a date that
the very best version of an idea with what you have, you
summer. It was the best mistake of my life. At the time, I had
are in much better shape to figure out whether that idea
a very good job in the computer industry, I was managing
is viable or interesting or going anywhere. Don't try to
an innovation group at Adobe and really enjoyed what I was
make it perfect, just make it as good as you can.
working on, but that discussion was like a pivot in my life,
At Tinkering School we set up engaged learning
just as for other people it might have been getting married
experiences where children take on a challenge that was
or having children of their own.
clearly outside their ‘comfort zone’. We don’t handpick
Eight children were signed up by the time the summer
children who knew basic engineering, or anything like that.
camp started, and I had cleared the downstairs rooms in my
Often it is their first time holding a pocket knife or using
house and turned them into dormitories. Since then the idea
a power tool. We are on very short deadlines and giving
has grown into something much bigger, with independent
them very complex challenges. We might say, ‘Let’s
tinkering schools in Chicago, Austin, Buffalo, Baltimore,
build boats, and we’re going to put them in the ocean
Malibu and Los Angeles, and another just started in
on Wednesday and power them around.’
Bratislava, Slovakia. Every year we grow our programme
We're kind of famous for the eight- or ten-hour days
a little bit more. We started with one session per year, now
that the kids work. We break for meals, and we rush back up
we run five sessions, ten kids each, making fifty kids, and we
to the barn. The children are so much more ready and raring
78
to go than the adult collaborators working with them.
the school there is a bit of recently abandoned railway
The projects enable the children to integrate lots of
track. Checking out the materials we had, we made a special
disparate skills that they've learned in school - finally
late-afternoon shopping run to get some new wheels that
would work on a railway. By the end of the week we had these beautiful vehicles - we called them ‘railboats’ - just
simple platforms with quite big sails and a variation of sailboat rigging that the kids invented. The plan was to
drop off the ‘boats’ at one end of the railroad track and pick them up at the other, 11 miles away. Not all of the railboats made it all the way down the
track. Sometimes the way the children had mounted they have a place to apply a little bit of mathematics and
wheels didn’t work out and they came apart. The railway
art and a little bit of physics and to put them in a context
itself, previously used for transporting gravel and sand to
that makes sense. It was amazing to watch how they really
a concrete factory, was in poor shape. Despite that, one
enjoy struggling with hard problems and having successes
railboat made 5 miles, one covered just 2 miles, but one
and failures. We wonder, ‘if this is holding their attention in
made it all the way to the end. A child would be out on this
this way and they are working so hard at it, why isn’t regular
lonely railroad with three or four new friends, with a limited
school like this?’ Parts of the programme are consistently
set of materials that happened to be on the boat, trying to
successtul but not always; so then we stop to ask, ‘what
figure out how to hold on a new wheel or fix a broken brace.
exactly were we hoping for?’ We look at our failures and
One group even ended up using duct tape to make a wheel
start tweaking and trying out new ideas.
that lasted about 3 miles. I think the project will stand the
To give you an idea of what Tinkering School does,
test of time as one of Tinkering School’s greatest, just for its
I recently asked the children, ‘Do you think we could make
sheer poetic beauty. It was audacious, and an opportunity
sail-powered railcars?’ About a forty-hve-minute drive from
for the kids to think themselves out of a problem.
79
But we learn just as much from our failures. One time,
with metal at Tinkering School. We had high hopes for
we were looking in the US magazine Make: for a one-day
these things, but they just couldn’t withstand the force -
project to slip into our complicated schedule. We chose
the torque - from those drills. The kids were disappointed
a cigar-box blues guitar project, and in the morning it
that they weren't zooming around on the electric carts that
started out pretty well. The kids were really excited about
they’d built, but there was also something epic about that
the idea of everybody building their own guitar and we
kind of failure. It was a galvanizing experience for them to see the thing just come apart when you applied power. When it comes to components, we harvest parts from
all kinds of things. One of the rules at Tinkering School is that we never use anything that a child might not find in a reasonably well-stocked home garage. However, one year we were driving the kids back from a beach outing when we
spotted a pile of broken lawnmowers and lawn-maintenance equipment beside the road. We stopped and loaded all were going to have a rock’n’ roll jam session at the end
that mechanical, petrol-powered stuff into the back of the
of the day - that was a pretty motivating destination. As
ieee drove home, and started sorting it out, stealing parts
we got going we found that the kids were most engaged
from one and the other. We got two of the motors working
when they had to deviate from the magazine’s instructions.
and then the kids built a car and a motorcycle out of the
But about two-thirds of the way through, an unexpected
recovered parts and some old plastic pipe that they found
emotional detachment came into play as the kids started to
under my shed. The pipe frame of.the bike allowed it to
see differences between the guitar they were building and
twist almost forty-fve-degrees due to the way the kids had
the one in the magazine. They could see that theirs was
built the chassis. As you went around a corner, the weight
going to fall somewhere short of their expectations, and
of the motor would sort of flop over to one side and it
they were making judgmental comparisons. When we were
done, we got some musical sounds out of these things, but the kids had realized it was kind of a foregone conclusion;
there wasn’t much left to discover or to invent or innovate on their part. We concluded that such projects don’t leave
room for the child’s narrative, or the sense of discovery and ownership that you get when you've figured something out for yourself. Failure doesn’t inevitably lead to emotional detachment.
would over-steer. It was very thrilling to drive. The project may sound insane, but it was not insanely dangerous.
We once made some little electric carts, using electric hand
Tinkering School always has to assess risk and the
drills as the motors. The kids were going to drive them
parameters of safety, and kids also need to gain the
around holding the extension cord. We got some very big
skills of risk assessment and mitigation for themselves.
industrial drills intended for drilling holes in concrete but
Tinkering is changing. A typewriter may have over
they were too powerful. They tore apart the little carts. We
600 components while an iPad has only about 170 pieces,
broke chains, we broke sprockets, it was amazing, they just
although many of those are smart components. Today, kids
self-destructed. The kids had worked very hard, they had
are watching YouTube videos and are often stumbling
learned how to weld, and it was the first time we had worked
across great new ideas. One kid showed me a kind of water-
80
powered rocket that intuitively made sense but I’d never
about the physical, economic and marketing constraints
seen it before. People aren’t toiling away in their garages
that influenced his or her design decisions. The kids
in lonely silence any more; they use their phone to shoot
might notice that an early decision forced the designer
a video of their results and put them on the Internet.
to create a convoluted, weirdly shaped lever
Iam also encouraged by a new trend of parents and
to get paper-
sensor information transferred mechanically over to another
kids wanting to build things together. The digital age has
part of the printer. Then they come across an assemblage,
led to a sort of collective constipation because nobody’s
apply a battery, and get a little motor going. Reviving a
making anything physical. Suddenly people are waking
motor can be as exciting as bringing Dr Frankenstein’s
up and, while they don’t quite understand the urge just yet,
monster to life.
they need to make something. It was certainly true for me
Children are willing to explore an intellectual or
that, after years of working in the special-effects industry,
physical
putting beautiful pixels on the screen, I wanted to use
there and what’s possible. Adults carry a lot of social and
my software skills to make physical things.
emotional baggage:
The same may prove true of kids who devote themselves
landscape for no other purpose than to see what's
they are expected to be productive,
on-task, and to get things done. Parents find programmes
to Minecraft or other products that allow them to build and
like Tinkering School appealing because it is hard for them
share game environments. I think that, maybe after years
to find time to spend two days taking something apart,
of doing it, children who have lost themselves in that world
just to see what is in it. Yet the processes of disassembling
will hit a point where they realize that ‘nothing I have
something, or building something with a limited set of materials, are what lay the foundations of creativity. Parents often say to me, ‘I want to help my child learn some tinkering skills, or learn how to take things apart,
and ask, ‘where should we start?’ Well, I think we should be giving kids pocket knives again. A pocket knife is an amazing, empowering, universal tool, and with just a couple of ten- or fifteen-minute sit-downs with a child
to talk about the safety parameters, it can be an entirely made is really real’ Some of these young children have
wholesome, productive
experience
for them. They can use
come to understand very sophisticated engineering ideas
it to take something apart, whittle away at something, cut
through playing games like Minecraft, but I don’t know
a piece of paper, or prise something open. It is the ideal
whether gaming will support the desire to tinker or supplant
tool for unlocking the universe. It offers a way of gaining
it. Doubtless dozens of research papers will be coming
a little bit of mechanical competence, a little bit of hand-eye
out about this topic over the next five years.
coordination, and a way to shape the world to your ideas.
When you are tinkering with physical objects, with
a design in your head and a pile of parts in front of you, your ideas intersect with reality. The materials demand compromises but also provide new opportunities. Kids might
get something like a broken printer and take it apart until they have separated all the constituent parts. While taking it apart they are in a sense exploring another person’s ideas. It’s almost like having a conversation with the designer
81
©000000000008
eeoecceeccece
—-
.
Accordion, 1960s Argus
eeeeee
Component count: 1,465
a
res
ie:
)@"eee
=
EIB!
#3ars
Fi
|
S|
Sy J hs
SS
y
7
Soe
—,
s @
=
=
| = a
oe= 6
I
s
5
)
x.
tet
J
\
=
ms
Ew
ie