Introduction
My younger brother Abdulla has two pet hamsters. He takes great care of them, giving them a large tub to stay in and every so often he takes one of them out to see the rest of the world. During the day we hardly ever see the hamsters, they are often hidden underneath the ground. This begs the question: what could they be doing underground? Could they be artists secretly perfecting their craft underground?
Abdulla insists that hamsters are nocturnal by nature; they sleep at night and only come out at night where you’ll often see them running on their hamster wheel if you’re awake at the time to see it in the first place and during the day they’re asleep. I however, have rarely seen them on their hamster wheel in the evening, usually because I’m asleep by that time, and do occasionally see them above ground in the day. I ignored my bias and instead I’ve been comparing them to the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci.
Da Vinci is often known for being an artist but not enough people realize that behind his art was an incredible effort to study the physical world: For example anatomy.
By Leonardo da Vinci – http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/study/ugr/mbchb/societies/surgical/events/invited_lecture_-/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52376553
He accumulated 13,000 pages of notes throughout his life consisting of his observations developing a scientific understanding of the physical world but rather than using semantics he would often draw what he saw [1]. He would also draw his own ideas or thoughts of new creations or inventions [1].
By Leonardo da Vinci – ausschnitt aus http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Leonardo_da_Vinci_helicopter_and_lifting_wing.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1559723
Yet only few knew or saw his personal notes during his lifetime except his pupils.
The hamsters may be exactly the same. Creating mental notes and studying the world during the day based on the observations around them but especially when Abdulla takes them out. Now all that is left is to see what they are capable of producing. I couldn’t yet tell Abdulla directly that they could be the next Da Vinci so instead I enlisted my other brother Ahmad to create a plan.
Concept
Ahmad and I arrived at the plan to direct the rotation of the hamster wheel to a pendulum with a pen attached or for short Pen Pendulum. On the back of the hamster wheel would be a gear made of cardboard. The teeth from the gears would strike an extension plate attached to the pen which would strike a piece of paper creating a drawing of some kind. The paper would be attached to a dresser near the tub.
We would create the Pen Pendulum first, then create the gear, then combine them together. Moreover, we only planned to have this setup for about 10-20 minutes just long enough to get the hamster drawing something rather than leaving it overnight. As otherwise we were worried that the marker may fall into the pen and harm the hamster in some way.
I originally proposed using a normal pen or pencil but Ahmad was right in saying a whiteboard marker would be better because the strikes will rarely hit the paper perfectly and the large tip of a marker would be far more consistent.
Ahmad and I later explained our plan to Abdulla. He was surprisingly excited and was happy to help.
Implementation
Step 1: Cleaning the wheel
Our first step was to clean the hamster wheel for when we would later attach the gear. Abdulla explained to us that we shouldn’t use water for the wheel since it was made of wood. Instead we used alcohol wipes in moderation and let the alcohol evaporate while we went to work on the Pen Pendulum.
Step 2: Pen Pendulum
We first found an area wherein we could develop our setup before ever putting it in the tub with the hamster.
The Pendulum was by no means precise. We used double sided tape to make sure the thread stays in place. The extension plate was made of paper. Ahmad also realized as he was making the extension plate that to accommodate for the wall trim we needed to make a cutout.
Step 3: Hamster Gear
Rather than make a big gear and tape it on the back of the wheel since all we had were A4 sized sheets we used small triangles as shown. And did some quick testing wherein we realized that we had to make three changes. First, the canvas which in the picture was just cardboard needed to be offset from the dresser. Second, the paper would need to be folded in the middle since occasionally the pen would strike the side rather than just the front. Lastly, we originally planned to stick in 4 gears but reduced it to two since otherwise the hamster wheel wouldn’t give enough time for the Pen Pendulum to oscillate back.
Step 4: Putting everything together
The first thing we did was put the hamster wheel in. It used to be on the right hand side of the tub but we moved it to the left side. We also gave some time for the hamster to get used to the wheel again; because we’d cleaned it, it no longer had the same familiar scent as it did before and we were sure that there was no smell of alcohol left in the wheel before ever putting it back.
During our initial tests without the paper we were testing to see if the hamster was comfortable running on the wheel or not. During these tests we were making some adjustments to the pen and extension plate. The end result was a drawing that almost looked like a face. However, we couldn’t claim that this was the hamster’s work alone because there was human intervention.
Result
We stapled a piece of A4 paper to the cardboard while making sure to not damage the wall and waited to see what the hamster would produce.
All the hours of meticulous studying underground from observations of the world around him but without the tools necessary produce all of what he had learned. But finally, we had finally created a tool for her to express herself through art.
Improvements
There are many things that could be done in the future to improve our design.
- Creating a more stable Pen Pendulum
- The pendulum meant that the drawing could only be 1 dimensional, maybe a different design could create a 2D Image.
All things considered while our design was certainly low-tech, we’re glad that it didn’t disrupt the hamster’s lives. And since we removed the setup after about 15 minutes we didn’t have to worry about anything falling into the pen and fortunately nothing did.
Acknowledgements
Before this assignment I had hurt my ankle quite badly and wasn’t sure how I was going to complete my plan let alone start it. I can’t thank my brothers enough for helping me not only with this project but as I’ve been recovering.
Citations