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Brett Doar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brett Doar is a multi-disciplinary artist, engineer and contraptionist known for building Rube Goldberg machines and other interactive and kinetic devices. Doar is best known for his roles as a primary engineer for the Rube Goldberg machine in OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" music video,[1] lead engineer and creative director for "Red Bull Kluge,"[2] and creator of GoldieBlox's "Princess Machine".[3] He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.[4]

Early life and education

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Doar was born in Cambridge Massachusetts and was raised in Charlotte, NC. As an undergraduate he studied architecture, linguistics, literature and screenwriting at 4 universities before earning his B.A. from New School University in New York City. He earned an M.F.A. from the Arts, Computation and Engineering program at UC Irvine in 2009.[5] He has worked as a commercial fisherman in the Bering Sea, a bus driver, a film and video editor, and a teacher at the preschool, middle school and university level.

Work

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Doar was a primary engineer of the Rube Goldberg machine for OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" music video, which premiered on YouTube on 2 March 2010 and achieved over 6 million views within six days.[6] Following the viral success of this music video, Doar built a Rube Goldberg machine for The Colbert Report which was set off by Stephen Colbert in front of a live audience to coincide with OK Go's performance on the show on 29 April 2010.[1]

In 2013, Doar created the "Princess Machine" that was featured in an ad for GoldieBlox.[3] The ad launched on YouTube in November 2013 and garnered over 8 million views in 4 days.[7]

In 2014, Doar created the machine used in the promotional trailer for the Android release of the mobile video game, Leo's Fortune.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Itzkoff, Dave. "Welcome to The Colbert Machine". Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  2. ^ Torchinsky, Jason. "The Man Behind The World's Biggest Rube Goldberg Machines Explains How You Control Chaos". Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  3. ^ a b Times, Los Angeles. "GoldieBlox video: Inspiring girls to be builders". latimes.com. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  4. ^ "Brett Doar – Linkedin Page". Linkedin. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  5. ^ UCI. "Domino Effect". communications.uci.edu. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  6. ^ Hare, Breeanna. "Who killed the music video star?". CNN. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  7. ^ Dredge, Stuart (13 May 2014). "GoldieBlox agreed to pay $1m to charity in Beastie Boys settlement". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  8. ^ "Ad of the Day: This Rube Goldberg Device Promotes a Video Game by Bringing It to Life". Retrieved 20 September 2016.
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