Instant Literacy Machine (after Rube Goldberg), paper, paste, insulation board, ink, 24 X 24" (2024). Click to enlarge photo.

LEGEND Retreating from (a) a flame, (b) the rhinoceros beetle will hoist (c) the Harvard Five-Foot Bookshelf on his horn until he lowers the spike to look at (d) dung. Full of weighty classics, the bookshelf drops on (e) the striker pad, launching (f) the clapper up the (g) novelty scale indicating the user’s SAT score. Ringing (h) the bell stimulates (i) a ring-tailed lemur to randomly strike (j) typewriter keys, flinging ten blocks of loose (k) stenotype across space. The type collects in (l) a funnel mounted on (m) an ocarina, which sorts the type into the user’s own 10-character ID. Punched into (n) Jacquard cards and fed into (o) a knitting machine, the unique code produces a custom (p) college varsity sweater!