The Consideration of Simplicity and the Mechanical Neck

Upon completing the mechanical neck, it unfortunately became clear that it wasn't going to work - when I placed the springs attaching the base of the neck to the plate and spring, the movement was good, but as soon as any weight was placed on the top of the head, the spring just collapsed completely and the neck went limp. Whilst people I discussed this with thought it would be okay as the wearer could hold up the head, I felt this wasn't good enough - it would be exhausting to hold 90% of the weight of the head for an hour whilst performing, and the puppeteer would either not be able to puppeteer as well as they could, or they'd need frequent breaks to rest their arms.

The pictures above show the spring base which were intended to be attached to the harness of the wearer, and the base of the anglepoise with the three matching tabs welded onto it. The plan was to have three springs holding the neck up whilst allowing it to flex, but when put together it was very hard to try and achieve this kind of balance - I even ended up trying to attach extra springs to the top part using cable ties - and seemed like a clunky, inelegant way to solve the problem of the moving neck.

Upon a lot of reflection, it seems much more logical to consider the way Thingumajig Theatre did the necks for their Dodo puppets - a simple PVC pipe with a basic pivot. Whilst the joint is very simple, it still provides enough movement for the performance to be believable, and it is lightweight, strong and sturdy. I hope I can incorporate some further form of movement into this idea of a neck made out of the same material as the body frame - but this will all have to be considered as the project progresses and prototypes can be tested.

It is disappointing that the anglepoise won't work - a lot of work went into modifying it to try and make it work - but this is often the way with projects. I seem to be learning increasingly that these types of projects are really just a case of long-winded, creative problem solving in order to create something appropriate for the desired situation; and that the simplest solution is often the best.