- Home
- About
- Donate
- Museum
- Workshop@EWM
- School Programs
- Birthday Parties
- Walk In Programs
- Special Requests
- Archived Projects and Programs
- The Whitney Workshop@Home – Summer 2020
- September / October School Holiday Programs 2019
- Summer 2019
- Summer 2018
- Summer 2017
- Election Day 2014
- Holiday Vacation Programs 2011
- Fall Vacation 2011
- February Vacation 2012
- Fall Vacations 2012
- February Vacation 2020: Engineer's Week
- Fall Vacations 2012
- Annual Meeting 2013
- Holiday Vacation Programs 2012
- February Vacation Programs 2013
- MLK Day 2013 Programs
- April Vacation Programs 2013
- Rosh Hashanah Vacation 2013
- Election Day 2013 Programs
- Veteran's Day Programs 2013
- Feb Vacation 2014: Engineers Wk
- Martin Luther King Day Programs 2014
- 'Hour of Code'/Scratch Cont'd
- Fantasy Game Night 2017 – 2018
- Intro to CNC Design and Fabrication
- Earth Week Vacation Programs 2014
- Archived Designs
- Adult Education Workshops 2021-2022
- Fantasy Game Night 2021 - 2022
- Summer 2022
- Vacation Programs 2021-22
- Visit Us
- Contact Us
- Join Our Email List
The 7th Challenge: Turns of Mind
On May 24th, 2000, the Eli Whitney Museum will open an exhibition of small works by designers, artists, architects, educators, and engineers. Each will make of common materials uncommon expressions.
This exhibition will help define design as a way of thinking: a fundamental mission of the Museum’s teaching. The exhibition will create the Portfolio of the e.Whitney Press's first interactive teaching compact disc. The exhibition will celebrate the breadth and significance of design as an economic activity in the New Haven region.
The May 24th Premier will fund the Museum's Apprentice Training Program which will underwrite workshops and classes for very young designers from all communities.
The Prime Movements
Nature turns wheels with muscle, wind and water in dutiful simplicity. Leonardo's mind reconstructs that movement. He collects and contrives twists and turns to compose an infinite choreography: sometimes a dull march, sometimes a graceful waltz, sometimes a jazzy jitterbug.
The Controller
The Museum constructs MacroChip Controllers to teach basic mechanics and basic invention. A crank and shaft move cams which alter the direction, the motion and, the speed of three or more lifters. The limited movement of the rotating shaft can be divided, transmitted coordinated and combined in unlimited applications.
The Challenge
Explore the simple movement vocabulary of this common controller. Adapt it, install it, transform it in a construction - that moves or not - to enrich ouranthology of the infinite twists of the creative mind.
We will send you a kit to assemble the basic Controller along with a 12x12 inch box which you may use - or not - to stabilize the work. It may be part of the construction or just a display platform. The idea of Controller is a launching point for your thinking. Elaborate it, transform it, enlarge it, reduce it, conceal it, reveal it: in all cases, the essence of the Controller.
Return the finished work to the Museum by Friday, May 21st. The final footprint should not exceed 15” by 15"; the height is unrestricted.
For your entry fee you will receive:
- the Controller and Box
- 2 tickets to a lively party and Premere on Thursday, May 24th
- 2 tickets to the Junior Challenge Sunday, May 6
- the Leonardo Challenge 2001, May 6th
- a first edition copy of The MacroChip CD from the eWhitney Press