| A prototype vending machine that dispenses free “absurdisms”, slips of paper featuring everything from fun facts to recipes to insults, to snap people out of their daily autopilot and encourage playful interaction with friends and strangers. |
Skills Experience Design, Physical Prototyping, Adobe Illustrator
Team Elise Raich-Chapman
Vending Machine Prototype
We placed the vending machine in a high-traffic corridor. Once passersbys are drawn in by the double take that this isn’t any regular vending machine, they press the machine’s button and recieve a piece of paper featuring an absurdism.
Absurdisms
The absurdisms feature anything from a vintage recipe questionably featuring gelatin to an illustration to a QR code linking to a random Wikipedia article.
Once people use the machine, the absurdism is theirs to keep, take photos of, and show their friends, paying forward the absurd and hopefully drawing more people towards the machine.
Process
To create an immersive experience that introduced the opportunity for play, Elise and I informed our project with Darko Suvin’s concept of “cognitive estrangement” — that presenting familiar things in an unfamiliar way forces us to reconsider our assumptions — and the simple but universal fact that the absurd is funny.
In summary, we decided to leverage the power of the absurd to snap people out of autopilot and bring them into a more awakened and playful state.
We made an experience that takes little attention and time so that busy students and faculty would be willing to engage with it. Using the preexisting ritual of exchange of a vending machine both cuts down on the cognitive load of using the machine, as users don’t need directions, as well as introduces absurdity by subverting users’ expectations about what usually comes out of a vending machine.
We made the graphic identity immersive at low and high levels of interaction. While users can get the full experience in just a few seconds, users with a bit more time can dive into the world of the machine through its unorthodox labeling.
We considered formats such as photo booths and gumball machines before settling on a vending machine.
Iterations on the exterior design. We drew inspiration from Japanese vending machines, which feature more whimsical designs and patterns than American machines.
To create a functional prototype, we fitted the machine with a receipt printer and loaded it with a roll of absurdisms which we’d pre-printed. Using an Arduino, my partner Elise programmed the printer to dispense a set length of paper each time the button is pressed.
©Sam Rauch 2024