The Decision Engine
A 20-foot-wide interactive Rube Goldberg machine built for a multi-city tour and now permanently installed as a training tool and piece of functional art.
See it in Action!
Client:Koch Industries Project: The Decision Engine
Category: Interactive installation / kinetic sculpture / training experience
What We Led: Concept development, creative direction, production design, scenic fabrication, custom console build, material direction, vendor coordination, integration support, installation
The Decision Engine was created as a large-scale interactive training experience: part kinetic sculpture, part functional learning tool.
Participants make a series of choices through a custom quiz console, which triggers a chain of visible physical action across two oversized kinetic engines. Motors activate, gears turn, brass balls travel along hand-bent tracks, and each decision path resolves on a Vestaboard display.
Dreamhouse led the concept, fabrication, production design, and physical integration of the piece, developing the custom console, warm oak surround, brass track systems, kinetic engine structures, and overall visual language.
Built first for a multi-city tour and later permanently installed, the piece had to balance spectacle with durability, transportability, serviceability, and polish. It needed to work as a live engagement tool, a training experience, and a long-term piece of functional art.
With robotics by BlueBay Automation and custom software by Triad.tech, the final installation transforms audience input into real mechanical motion, making abstract decision-making feel physical, visible, and memorable.
20 Feet Wide
2 Kinetic Engines
Custom Quiz Console
Vestaboard Integration
Hand-Bent Brass Track
Touring Build → Permanent Install
Robotics & Software Integration
The Decision Engine shows what happens when creative direction, scenic fabrication, technical integration, and install logistics are treated as one connected system: an ambitious idea made physical, durable, interactive, and fully resolved.