I have changed my ideas for several times, at first, I want to do something with a magnet because the magnet is like a magic to me and if I do the install then the magnet would make my work more like a mystery. But I gave up this magnet idea after I got the magnet that I have bought on Amazon, it’s just too big and too heavy for the cardboard, and because of the heavy mass it moves too fast and my grip can’t hold it very well. So, I changed the magnet ball into a pink bouncy ball which perfectly fit the requirement that I want the ball to meet. Moreover, the memory of my childhood game jumped out, and the game called 3D pinball. The ball will be pushed by the grips and it will jump into the obstacles that I put above the trips and it can draw random lines. I think nothing went as expected at first, and that’s the reason why I have changed the whole idea all over again. Build the base of my 3D pinball is very easy, and Angela gave me many good ideas to perfect my conference project, for example, she suggested me to cover the cardboard with one layer of salt so the pink ball can press a random line through it moving direction. And Angela suggested me that I don’t need to create the slope for the base, even if the base is horizontal to the ground the ball can still fall to the grip and when I install my conference project the ball will not roll it everywhere. However, I totally failed because the magnet I idea just doesn’t fit at all. And the long-exposure camera can’t really “draw” a complete line. I scheduled an open studio one day and I searched all the potential materials that I can use, and I found the small block which is the key to finish my project. After I spread the salt on the cardboard, I found that the granularity of the salt was a little too large, so there was no way for the ball to roll because the contact area of the ball was not so smooth. So I had to raise the slope of the cardboard again to allow the ball to roll under the action of gravity. Users will be swayed by the decorations and obstacles on the cardboard where they throw the ball.
