Rube Goldberg Machine Project
During this project we began by learning about satire and what it is. As we went deeper we learned about different types of satire, different satirical devices, and analyzed satire to find its target, message, and the issue it was addressing. Finally we turned our focus to giving our rube goldberg machines a satirical message.
Project Reflection
The target of my satire is politics and the government. The message is that the government is only hurting efforts to combat climate change because of the consistent power and priority changes. The two main satirical devices that I used were caricature and juxtaposition. I chose to use caricature because it makes the piece more interesting as well as lightening the mood and keeping it from being gloom and doom. The caricature introduced a little bit of humor as well and made the satire more of a cartoon. I also used juxtaposition to help reinforce my point by and clearly show the flip flopping of power. I showed juxtaposition by using captions under the caricature drawings of the presidents. For example under George W. Bush the caption talks about how he left the Kyoto agreement then right next to it the caption under Obama talks about how he joined the Paris climate accord. I also showed juxtaposition in the dialogue above the presidents
The most Important thing that I learned during this project was how versatile satire is and can be. You can see this in my final project with how many different examples of satire I put into my rube goldberg machine as well as how many elements are in my piece of satire. For example nearly every step in my rube has a connection to my satirical message, the first step shows the industrial revolution as the fulcrum for the beginning of climate change. Also two of my steps near the end show how political figures say they are doing something about climate change but then it goes behind closed doors and we never hear anything about it causing the climate to spiral further and further down.
I think that satire plates a large role in society by presenting problems in different ways. Satire can be very useful to present otherwise hard to talk about or understand problems in different often lighthearted ways opening these opinions up to a larger audience. I think some of the easiest ways to make satire more effective are by using the right satirical devices for the situation to make your message easier to understand and interpret, weather it be sarcasm, irony, and parody to make it humorous or juxtaposition and hyperbole to make your message more obvious. For example “The Pikachu Rider” depicts a teen looking intently at his phone while a video game character is riding on a saddle on the teen’s elongated neck uses horatio and hyperbole. These devices make the message extremely easy to pick up just by giving the image a quick glance.
For this class and project as a whole I give myself a 7 mostly because I have had a hard time staying on top of my class work this semester especially recently. Occasionally I also have trouble focusing and staying on track mostly during online classes but during in person learning as well. Something that I could do to help stay on top of my work is to use my class time better especially on online days because I often find myself getting sidetracked and doing other things as soon as I get off the meeting. This often ends up with me doing my work later that night instead of the time I have during class and/or procrastinating until the night before it is due and one you get behind on one assignment it is twice as hard to get caught back up. To avoid this a strategy I could use is to set a timer after class ends and use that for specifically classwork.
The target of my satire is politics and the government. The message is that the government is only hurting efforts to combat climate change because of the consistent power and priority changes. The two main satirical devices that I used were caricature and juxtaposition. I chose to use caricature because it makes the piece more interesting as well as lightening the mood and keeping it from being gloom and doom. The caricature introduced a little bit of humor as well and made the satire more of a cartoon. I also used juxtaposition to help reinforce my point by and clearly show the flip flopping of power. I showed juxtaposition by using captions under the caricature drawings of the presidents. For example under George W. Bush the caption talks about how he left the Kyoto agreement then right next to it the caption under Obama talks about how he joined the Paris climate accord. I also showed juxtaposition in the dialogue above the presidents
The most Important thing that I learned during this project was how versatile satire is and can be. You can see this in my final project with how many different examples of satire I put into my rube goldberg machine as well as how many elements are in my piece of satire. For example nearly every step in my rube has a connection to my satirical message, the first step shows the industrial revolution as the fulcrum for the beginning of climate change. Also two of my steps near the end show how political figures say they are doing something about climate change but then it goes behind closed doors and we never hear anything about it causing the climate to spiral further and further down.
I think that satire plates a large role in society by presenting problems in different ways. Satire can be very useful to present otherwise hard to talk about or understand problems in different often lighthearted ways opening these opinions up to a larger audience. I think some of the easiest ways to make satire more effective are by using the right satirical devices for the situation to make your message easier to understand and interpret, weather it be sarcasm, irony, and parody to make it humorous or juxtaposition and hyperbole to make your message more obvious. For example “The Pikachu Rider” depicts a teen looking intently at his phone while a video game character is riding on a saddle on the teen’s elongated neck uses horatio and hyperbole. These devices make the message extremely easy to pick up just by giving the image a quick glance.
For this class and project as a whole I give myself a 7 mostly because I have had a hard time staying on top of my class work this semester especially recently. Occasionally I also have trouble focusing and staying on track mostly during online classes but during in person learning as well. Something that I could do to help stay on top of my work is to use my class time better especially on online days because I often find myself getting sidetracked and doing other things as soon as I get off the meeting. This often ends up with me doing my work later that night instead of the time I have during class and/or procrastinating until the night before it is due and one you get behind on one assignment it is twice as hard to get caught back up. To avoid this a strategy I could use is to set a timer after class ends and use that for specifically classwork.