Fringe Invention is a showcase of the strange and amusing Japanese art of Chindogu and the organisers of the festival are looking for Dunedin inventors to add to the exhibition.
Chindogu is the art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem but are not very practical.
Examples of Chindogu include duster slippers for cats so they can help out with housework, portable zebra-crossings and an elastic tapemeasure for those trying to lose weight.
Dunedin Fringe Festival Director Paul Smith is passionate about the art of Chindogu and believes it appeals to the human pioneering spirit.
‘‘It's a fun thing but it's also about problem solving. They [the inventions] have to exist, they have to be useful, they have to work and they must solve some problem but they also have to be so impractical they would never be used.''
Entries for Fringe Invention close on March 18 and a panel of experts will decide which entries will feature in the exhibition which will be on display at the Dunedin Public art Gallery from March 29 to April 5.
There are three categories for inventors to enter - secondary student, tertiary student and an open category which includes academics, product designers and backyard inventors.
Inventions will need to be built prior to the exhibition starting and the University of Otago has offered to help those, with viable designs, who may have trouble putting it together.
• Entries close on March 18 at 5pm, with entry forms available from the Fringe Festival office in the basement of the Carnegie Centre, Moray Place and online at www.dunedinfringe.org.nz
• For more information call 477 3350 or email info@dunedinfringe. org.nz
