This Mind-Numbing Machine By Blake Fall-Conroy Lets You Experience Making The Minimum Wage

The Minimum Wage Machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 4.00 seconds, for $9.00 an hour, or NY state minimum wage (2016). If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money. The machine’s mechanism and electronics are powered by the hand crank, and pennies are stored in a plexiglas box. The MWM can be reprogrammed as minimum wage changes, or for wages in different locations.

More: Blake Fall-Conroy

Blake Fall-Conroy is an artist and self-taught mechanical engineer. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he moved to Ithaca, New York in 2002 where he later received a BFA in sculpture from Cornell University. As a mechanical engineer, he works in industrial robotics, where he designs and fabricates remote-controlled robots that climb vertical surfaces.

As an artist, Blake’s art-making practice is conceptually motivated, commenting on a wide range of issues — from consumerism and the American spectacle to surveillance and technology. His projects often incorporate mechanical and electronic components, as well as objects or motifs found within the routine of everyday life.