When I was growing up a big point in the week would always be the arrival of The Observer newspaper on a Sunday. The two bits I devoured immediately were Clive James' TV reviews and Tim Hunkin's Rudiments Of Wisdom. The Clive James stuff appealed to the pop culturist wannabe writer in me and I loved The Rudiments of Wisdom because I wanted to be an engineer, like my Dad. The education system and my own laziness forced me to choose between the two and I plumped for the non-mechanical arts, but I still loved Tim Hunkin.
After the rudiments were phased out of The Observer (probably in favour of some specious holistic doctor) Mr Hunkin popped up next on BBC2 with a brilliant homebrew-looking series called The Secret Life Of Machines. But that was in the days where you watched a TV programme and then it just disappeared, you never saw it again. And he did some stuff with the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, I remember seeing some of his machines in Covent Garden (I think). And then I got more and more swallowed up with the digital and I stopped thinking about building Hunkin machines.
But then, earlier this year, I bumped into Hukin-ness again at KInetica and read about his amusement arcade at Southwold Pier. And I got all excited again. And then I saw he was talking at We Love Technology and started to think of it as a pilgrimage.
He didn't disappoint. What a lovely man.
He pointed out that amusement arcades are in terrible decline at the moment. Video gaming at home is as good as you can get in most arcades and the relaxation in gambling laws means that more and more arcade territory is being given over to gaming machines. There's not a lot of investment in gaming fun. So, he thought, what could be a better time to reinvent the arcade? And he happened to live close to Southwold Pier and was given the chance to run the arcade there, so he did.
He's clearly always been a builder and a tinkerer but I think the thing that makes him different is this very clear thought - 'the best machine to make is a machine that makes you laugh'. That might be why his machines are so much more successful than other things you might think of as 'media art'. In the same way that comedy is clearly a higher and more difficult art than straight drama then making a machine that makes you laugh is a more interesting discipline than some media project that's designed to 'provoke' or 'make you think' or 'challenge contemporary notions or interpersonal modality'.
And, of course, the joy of his laugh-making machine success is that he doesn't have to apply for grants or talk in the language of funding applications. He justs goes and empties the cash out of his machines every week and makes a living at it. There's a purity of purpose to that which I imagine is very satisfying.
He's got a few machines which act like funny simulators - they simulate walking the dog, or compress a package holiday into three minutes. He said that he never bothers trying to match the movement on the screen with the wobbling of the seat - he reckons that if you wobble the seat a bit and there's some movement on the screen that's all you need to create enough illusion for you to get immersed. I like that. I bet there's lots of parallels with other things in there somewhere. Don't work to hard on making something believable, make it entertaining and the brain will fill it all in for you.
He also talked about the value of re-using stuff, not starting from scratch. In a very pratical way. A lot of his machines are built on the bones and frames of pre-existing machines - Atari things or treadmills or whathaveyou, and they've already invested millions of dollars in making sure those things comply with health and saftey regs etc. Which means that Mr Hunkin doesn't have to worry so much about that stuff.
The other big moment for me was his passion for working with his hands, he's recently taught himself to use CAD but he says he can't do it for long, he just yearns to get out in the shed 'thinking with my hands'. Apparently he's tried to get permission to go into schools and teach kids to use powertools (which are very rewarding when your hands are too small to do a lot) but most schools are frightened of the idea. Powertools for kids! I could get behind that as a campaign. (Along with Medium Amounts Of Things!)
But the key thing I got from Mr Hunkin - enthusiasm = good. Anyone fancy a day-trip to Southwold Pier sometime?
This was good stuff too. Plasticity is a an 'urban planning toy' -they've modeled Bradford city centre on the Unreal Engine (so it looks like a video game, it, sort of, is a video game) and you (or your character) can wonder around looking at and playing with the architecture. Though I like the way Mr Manthorp put it "if accurately models an urban centre and then allows you to monkey with it". I think that expresses the way they'd taken a very serious project and rendered it playful, and therefore more useful.
The introduction of nice British colloquialisms into techtalk is a good thing. Reminds me of the folksy hunt for a British version of 'beta'.
And then, that was it for the day because James arrived, tried to sneak in, got spotted and ejected so we went and had a cup of tea in Huddersfield Open Market, which is a fantastic place.
All in all a brilliant day, I think I got the same things out of it that Iain did. Must go again next year.
"...comedy is clearly a higher and more difficult art than straight drama."
I'm not entirely convinced of this any more. I think it's just that with comedy you know if it's worked or not because you either laugh or don't laugh. With drama we have no definitive criteria for success, so we just assume it always works to some degree, therefore it's easier.
So I think our criteria for judging drama is too lax. If the criteria for successful drama was that it made you cry or gasp then drama might seem a more difficult art than comedy.
Posted by: Phil Gyford | July 19, 2007 at 08:37 AM
That's very true, I'd not really thought of it like that. It's the clarity that's useful in comedy. People either laugh or they don't. Which, if you use it as a strategy for making things, is very useful. Because you know if it succeeded. Which is what I find so troublesome with most serious art, I never know if it's 'worked' (which I'm sure is very naive).
Posted by: russell | July 19, 2007 at 08:47 AM
I wrote recently about how id love to open an arcade, and reacquiant people with the brilliant fun it can be.
Just like cinema and dvd, arcades have merits beyond that of most consoles.
Posted by: Rob Mortimer | July 19, 2007 at 03:03 PM
We used to be shown the Secret Life shows in science classes (years after it was originally on telly), much as we used to be shown Blackadder Goes Forth in History lessons - i.e. when the teacher couldn't be bothered to teach.
Unlike the Blackadder, which didn't teach us much about WWI except the old saws about mad, bad generals, I probably learned everything I know about mechanics from Hunkin.
And the 'How Things Work' books with the mammoths which he must have had a hand in.
Posted by: James Bridle | August 10, 2007 at 04:50 PM