HUMAN INTEREST
ART MEETS ENGINEERING
A tinkerer at heart, this engineering student aims to highlight the importance of human connections with his mechanical creations.
Written by Cassandra Kelly
“A Clear Sheet of Glass” by Jason Nuttle. Photo: Vani Bhushan/Yale University
JASON NUTTLE ALWAYS STARTS his projects with simple ideas that transform as he delves deeper into them. For example, the senior thesis project he is developing is an automaton that walks around the room appearing to observe its surroundings. Nuttle is a double major in art and engineering sciences with an emphasis on mechanical engineering at Yale University.
The “funky little machines,” as he likes to call them, that Nuttle designs are intended to bridge the gap between human and machine, making those who interact with them feel a sense of empathy.
“I grew up playing the cello and piano, and we'd have to do audition panels and there was always this surreal awareness of being closely observed by someone writing notes on a clipboard,” he explained. “It's such a strange sensation, being watched like that.”
Knowing his work will once again be up for observation when he presents his senior project had him questioning the entire process. To capture that strange feeling, his automaton will be taking notes on a clipboard—quite literally judging the thesis panel as the panel judges it right back. It also does a few tricks, including hiding the clipboard if you try to peek at its notes. But his design is about more than making light of an uncomfortable situation.
“These AI bots have so much information about us from our digital footprints,” he said. “But because there's no physical manifestation of this observation, it doesn't ring the alarm bells as much as if there was someone in the corner of the room watching everything you did. That would be really creepy.”
For Nuttle, it is all about expanding a person’s curiosity, empathy, and perspective. He was inspired by the works of Alexander Calder and the mechanical wonders of Arthur Ganson, and how both artists inspire questions about form and balance in nature.
MEANINGFUL BUILDS
Nuttle has been fascinated by form and balance since he was a child playing with Legos. His earlier projects were more lighthearted, such as the giant metal banana he designed in high school. He started by cutting out the flat shapes of the banana and then welding them together. From there, he inflated it in a forge, applying 50 psi to expand it. It was a fun project, he said, and it made his fellow students laugh.
Engineering student Janson Nuttle with one of his creations, “Dream Car.” Photo: Vani Bhushan/Yale University
“Sometimes you get wonder by showing people exactly how it works and sometimes you get wonder by making them question it.”
– Jason Nuttle, senior art and engineering student, Yale University
Nowadays, Nuttle maintains the humor but makes his pieces a bit more self-reflective. One project is a keyboard that types out “hey,” then deletes the word and retypes “hi.”
“I get so anxious about starting emails,” he said. “How the heck am I supposed to address my professors? Some like to be called by their first names, others prefer to be called ‘doctor,’ and I wanted this machine to capture that feeling of typing and retyping an email.”
Another of his favorite creations is a house. Looking into what appears to be a living room, light then moves across the windows, much like the sun might move across the sky, changing the shadows and the dimension in the room.
“For this one, I thought a lot about COVID-19 and designed it to represent the long days of that time, just bored and stuck in a room,” he explained.
Nuttle enjoys integrating illusion into his work as well. On some projects, like a mechanical bird—with visible gears that slowly sputter out and stop to symbolize a bird’s death after hitting a window—show exactly how the machine is working. Others, like the pandemic house, have hidden mechanics, generating curiosity about how it works.
“Sometimes you get wonder by showing people exactly how it works and sometimes you get wonder by making them question it,” he said.
“Player Keyboard” by Jason Nuttle. Photo: Yale University
MAKING THINGS (OR PEOPLE) TICK
Although Nuttle attributes many of his ideas to his growing up alongside technology, he believes it wasn’t always for the best.
“‘Gen-Zers are growing up with devices that were designed to maximize profits more than benefit people,” he explained. “And that's sort of how I think we’ve gotten into the state we are in today. It’s very divisive. People can’t see eye to eye anymore. But we’re all humans. So, I am always trying to figure out ways to get people to sit and reflect about their connections to themselves and others.”
To explore his interests further, he recently collaborated with Creative Machines, a design and fabrication firm based in Tucson, Ariz., working closely with founder Joseph O’Connell to design and build large kinetic public art installations.
After graduation, Nuttle is keeping his options open—maybe working at a similar company or going for his graduate degree, potentially in architecture. “I want to learn the nitty gritty,” he said. “The balance, the form, the symmetry. I know the stories I want to tell, but I want to know how to make things more beautiful.”
Regardless of where he ends up, Nuttle will always be a tinkerer above all else, and his inventions serve as a poignant reminder of the importance of human connection in an increasingly digital world and the enduring power of human ingenuity.
Cassandra Kelly is a technology writer in Columbus, Ohio.
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