'Eclectic' Art Instructor Inspires Wacky 3-D Golf Course Designs

(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) It's a mini golf course like you've never seen before.

Each one, hand-crafted by Missouri Western art students, is a Rube Goldberg device.

Rube Goldberg machines are designed to take really complicated steps to accomplish very simple tasks - like getting a golf ball into a hole.

One student describes his group's mini golf hole, inspired by Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas:

"When you golf the ball, it goes through the holes, down the ramp, hits the lever, then the ball drops into a cup.? That makes the water go up, drop the ball through the hose and into the hole.? It's all a hole in one."

So you can see how these contraptions can be a little complicated.

Think something along the lines of that old board game Mouse Trap.

It's an art assignment that combines art, science, and engineering.

"If I can find a way to teach the objectives and incorporate it into something that's fun, then the students get something out of it and sometimes they learn without even realizing they're learning," says art professor Neil Lawley.

Lawley's brainchild is an assignment that combines everything his students have learned in a semester's worth of 3D art concepts.

?"When you first sit down in his class and you're new to his teaching style, you don't necessarily get it.? You're like 'Why am I doing this?'" says art student Tony Redmond.? "By the end of the semester, at least in 3D design, you're like "Ahh, now I understand form and function and the use of elements and principles."

And it's through these principles these students are able to do their assignments.

But the big creative inspiration is Lawley.

It's his eclectic interests and curiosity that inspires cooky assignments like Rube Goldberg mini golf.

"It's something I've done all my life really," Lawley said.? "I've tried to fix things and reuse things and make them do what I want to do.? I think it's part of just being an explorer, being curious, and tinkering things until they get work."

And sometimes they don't work.

But these art major tinkerers don't settle for failure - their ultimate reward is figuring it all out and getting their three-dimensional, mechanical art to work.

Source: http://stjoechannel.com/fulltext?nxd_id=315092

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