FREE THYROXINE MANUFACTURING
The Tempest
April 2025
Within the technological setting of the show, I wanted to create a dichotomy between the 'high-tech' Ariel and 'low-tech' Caliban. For Caliban, I wanted to lean into the a that if Ariel is high-tech, sleek, modern technology, then Caliban is like an outdated automaton, rotting away on a tropical island for decades. I wanted to evoke the fish-like description without being too literal, and I was inspired by the way that fabric manipulation techniques like smocking and shirring created scale-like effects. The collar of the jumpsuit, barnacles, and the undershirt that peeks through were all done with these techniques. The idea for the mask was discarded both to make Caliban more distinct from Ariel, but also to allow the actor to fully articulate the character.
My biggest enginnering challenge for this show by far was creating Caliban's mechanical hand. I wanted to emphasize the automaton-ness of Caliban by giving him a physical technological element, to contrast Ariel's ephemeral digital conjuration. I went through ~12 different prototype iterations before finally reaching a design that worked, and worked consistently. The fingers and back plate are lasercut acrylic, attatched to a 3d printed gauntlet, which is sewn to a fingerless work glove, which itself is sewn to a cheap orthopedic wrist brace. The brace stabilizes the weight of the hand so that it doesn't shift or slide when worn. There are 'tendons' running throught each finger made of a piece of 3/8" grosgrain tape, which are sewn to each finger of the glove. This allows the mechanical fingers to move in sync with the actor's own gestures. Each joint is tensioned with heavy duty rubber bands so that the fingers snap back into an open position. The acrylic pieces are screwed together with standard M3 nuts and bolts.
Original hand design by @cardboardcraftkazu
In the initial acrylic prototypes, I had the 'tendons' glued and sealed into the fingertips. This worked, but it made it very difficult to replace parts if they broke (which, at that point, they did. Often) For lack of access to a better lubricant at the time, I also doused each of the fingers in motor oil. Though effective, this was not an ideal solution for many, many reasons.
I used a vector editor to modify the original template to accomodate screws and the rubber band system. The most notable modification I made was changing the shape of the 'hooks' on each joint so that they served as both brakes to limit the motion of the joints, and also to hold the rubberbands secure. The below diagram shows how each joint needed to be rubber banded. Not every joint had the same number of hooks, and the particular weave of each rubber band created a specific tension for each joint.
The original cardboard design had the 'tendons' passing through guide channels inside of the hand, which I initially tried to replicate. Because of the way that I had to reinterpret the original template to work with acrylic and plastic, the strings were able to slide out of their channels and inbetween the two pieces of acrylic they were supposedto be trapped between.
It took a lot of experimenting to figure out how many layers of acrylic each joint needed to remain stable and not snap. The exact math to calculate the width of each joint, accounting for the multiple layers of acrylic and augmented by washers and m3 nuts is pictured below. Frankly, I barely understand what this means at this point.
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