Upcycle Progress – Steampunk Bike Parts – Post 3

I have decided I want to focus my project in on a single sculpture. I think a sculpture of a human looking creation is where I want to go. Putting the sculpture into some sort of dance pose would be funny. I’m not sure if ironic is the right word but a very industrial almost steampunk aesthetic contrasted with a comical dance pose seems like a combination I want to go after. The goal of the project is to only use the old bike parts I have laying around the garage. I also want to ensure I make something cute and funny. Making the very sharp corners of a gear look like something cute you would want to touch is the main challenge. I think if I really lean into using round shapes it could potentially make the design feel less “pointy”. I also think the face is crucial. If I make the eyes really big it will remind people of a puppy with their small heads and big eyes.

Below I am attaching some more images as inspiration for the design. The first image is from the 1980 film “Airplane!”. This disco pose he hits would be very funny to replicate in my sculpture. These extravagant positions will make my creation seem more human, even if it doesn’t necessarily resemble a human.

“Airplane!” 1980 by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker

This second image below is of the poster for the 2008 film “WALL-E”. This is an excellent example of making a robotic, mechanical machine made of lots of sharp pointy things cute. I think the key in making wall-e cute and likeable is his big eyes and how they can tilt up and down to convey emotion.

“WALL-E” 2008 by Andrew Stanton

The final image attached is a quick sketch idea I have for the eyes of my sculpture to try and make it look cute. I don’t think the idea I have is quite right, it still looks creepy so I will have to tweak it. That being said I don’t want to make the eyes so large that the sculpture can’t stand on its’ own. I think it will be a little easier to figure out once I start building.

My building schedule will begin this coming weekend. I have all the materials collected and ready to go. This week I will go through each of the gear and select the ones I want to use in my sculpture and the ones that need to go. I will look into buying some wire this weekend to bind everything together instead of epoxy. The epoxy I have has a really long working time and takes a few days to cure I think my sculpture will fall apart if don’t use zipties or wire to hold it all together while the epoxy cures. I think epoxy would be nice if I want to make the project permanent, but I’m not sure if I want to part ways with all the bike components yet. There must be some logical fallacy related to people who hoard bike parts and say they will use them someday :).