루브 골드버그(Rube Goldberg) 장치

                                     <2010 루브 골드버그 컨테스트 배너>

 풍자만화로 퓰리처상을 받은 미국의 만화가 루브 골드버그(Rube Goldberg, 1883-1970)는 신문에 연재된 그의 만화에서 단순한 결과를 얻기 위해 매우 복잡한 과정 거쳐야 하는 을 온갖 장치들을 선보였다.

쉽고 단순한 일상의 작업을 아주 어렵고 복잡하게 만드는 것이 이 장치의 핵심이었는데, 밥을 떠 먹여주는 장치, 밥 먹을 때 입가에 묻은 것을 닦아주는 자동 냅킨 기계, 지각했을 때 상사가 눈치채지 못하게 하는 기계, 창문 하나를 닫기 위해 온갖 도르래와 줄 등을 이용한 장치 등도 포함되어 있다.




루브 골드버그 장치를 이용한 뮤직비디오 한편 감상.  OK GO의 'This shall pass'.

 이 장치들의 특징은 목적을 수행하기 위해 복잡한 과정을 거치지만,  결과는 한심하기 짝이 없다. 사람들은 골드버그 만화에서 등장한 각종 번잡한 장치를 루브 골드버그 장치(Rube Goldberg machine, Rube Goldberg device)라고 불렀으며, 이는 단순한 결과를 얻기 위해 복잡한 과정을 거치는 상황,  즉   "최소의 결과를 얻기 위해 최대의 노력을 기울이는 인간 또는 조직", "필요 이상의 품을 들인 일", "너무 복잡하여 불가능한 일" 등을 의미하는 말로 사용되기에 이르렀으며, 실제로 미국의 대표적 사전인 웹스터 사전(Webster's Dictionary)에 등재되어 있기도 하다.

 풍자를 위해 고안되었던 장치들이 이제는  본래의 의미보다는 광고에 활용되거나 매니아틱한 재미를 추구하는 사람들을 통해 지속되고 있는데, 미국의 퍼듀 대학에서는 1987년 이래로 루브 골드버그 장치 컨테스트까지 개최하고 있다.  올해(2010년) 루브 골드버그 컨테스트는 3월달에 개최되었다.



Rube Goldberg Biography

Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author.
Reuben Lucius Goldberg (Rube Goldberg) was born in San Francisco on July 4th, 1883. After graduating University of California Berkeley with a degree in engineering, Rube went on to work as an engineer for the City of San Francisco Water and Sewers Department.

After six months Rube shifted gears and left the Sewers Department to become an office boy in the sports department of a San Francisco newspaper. While there he began to submit drawings and cartoons to the editor until he was finally published. Rube soon moved from San Francisco to New York to work for the Evening Mail drawing daily cartoons. This led to syndication and a national presence – and the rest is history.

A founding member of the National Cartoonist Society, a political cartoonist and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Rube was a beloved national figure as well as an often-quoted radio and television personality during his sixty-year professional career.

Best known for his “inventions”, Rube’s early years as an engineer informed his most acclaimed work. A Rube Goldberg contraption – an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals – takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated. He had solutions for How To Get The Cotton Out Of An Aspirin Bottle, imagined a Self-Operating Napkin, and created a Simple Alarm Clock – to name just a few of his hilariously depicted drawings.

The promise and pitfalls of modern technology make Rube Goldberg’s inventions even more relevant now than when they were originally created. From think-tanks in Silicon Valley, to the New York Times, to Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, hardly a day goes by without the name “Rube Goldberg” being invoked. In fact Rube Goldberg is an adjective in Webster’s Dictionary.

Today Purdue University hosts the annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest which brings Rube’s comic genius to life for millions of fans. Covered widely by the national media, the winning team and their working invention always appears on late night talk shows like David Letterman, Jay Leno, or Jimmy Kimmel Live. To get a real window into the machine contest, go to www.mousetraptomars.com where you can watch a 2 minute clip from the upcoming documentary that chronicles three teams vying for the winning slot. A coffee table book of Rube’s work is being published by Abrams in 2012, along with a calendar and children’s pop-up book.

At a time when the U.S. is looking to inspire young minds, Rube Goldberg’s legacy represents the best in American innovation, humor and unconventional thinking; an inspiring model for us all.

http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

참조 사이트 :  루브골드버그 공식 웹페이지  http://www.rubegoldberg.com/