Day 1 of Exam - Construction Diary

Today was not the first time I was struck by a metaphor in the early evening sun, as I sit in my workshop and watch my elderly grandmother and semi-elderly mother do a jigsaw puzzle I realise i have spent most of the day doing one myself. Today was the first of three days of controlled art exam and I spent five hours assembling my final piece which is to be the culmination of a life time of work. Not my life time obviously perhaps the lifetime of a shrew or other small hearted mammal. Small hearted mammals brings me back to my family doing a jigsaw puzzle, today I did my own sort of a jigsaw puzzle because i put lots of pieces i have been working on together. The notable difference is with my final piece I'm not sure if all the parts are there or it they'll fit together.

I began my days work by unpacking all the part that I've been delivering for the past few week, I cam quickly to the realistion of two things, the mountain of work ahead and the mountain of parts beside me. Spreading out all the part gave me an appreciation for the work ahead, I screwed the main upright frame to the base frame and then assembled each individual module. With each module assembled I could then test to make sure they still worked, the modules fall into two major groups with some subdivision, either they raise balls up or drop them down, the most prominent module the ferris wheel lifts the balls to there highest point so I use that as my starting place. With my starting place, I then built the necessary frame to hold the system which would deliver balls to the bottom of the ferris wheel, this meant I have a start and finish place. As the day wore on I came up with a rough order of modules and started to mount them in series with the hope that at some point they would join up. By the end of the day my contraption was mostly in one piece and was partially wired and moderately functional.

I got alot done on the first day, most of today was assembling all the part and making sure they worked individually the more difficult bit will be to connect every module and get them all working in sync. I'm no fool and I admit the more I work on it the less likely I think it will be that i'll get every module working together and that i'll achieve perpetual motion, However the more I work on this piece the more I realise it is going to be visually ore inspiring whether it functions or not so I think that I'll still have a strong piece even if it doesn't work as well as I might have liked it to. The problem I'm having is that each module works perfectly individually but to fit each one within the base frame and then line them up in such a way they all work is difficult at this stage it may not be impossible however I feel chances are slim to none.

On the whole today did go very well I got a huge amount done and by starting to put every piece together I've realised I may have to curb my ambition which is a good thing to realise now rather than closer to the end of my time. I'm lucky that I can get straight back to work tomorrow, I plan to finish assembling my piece and then wire it so it is all functional and aesthetically pleasing. I'll spend my last day which will be three days subsequent to my second connecting all the modules up and hoping I can get an effective chain reaction, I'll also use the time to do finished aesthetic touches.

My invigilator