I Know I’ll Win the Prize (2025), Queenie Wu
The Law of Attraction promises that by channeling and affirming positive energy, you can manifest what you want into your life. But what happens when you apply this philosophy to a rigged game, like a claw machine? How does it feel to maintain that positivity?
When systems are designed for you to fail, how many times are you willing to try again?
My persistent friend Ellen, before she found out the game was rigged.
My persistent friend Ellen, before she found out the game was rigged.
Approaching this final project, my main goal was to learn how to hack an existing item, like a toy. I scoured the thrift store, and got lucky enough to find a working mini claw machine.
After prying it open (just to find out it was a bunch of hot glue), Jess and I, equipped with a multimeter, spent days reverse-engineering the circuit.
The original claw had three toggles connected to three motors: one for left/right movement, one for forward/backward, and one for up/down. Each of these systems were also accompanied by two limit switches, defining end points of the path.
Rather than wrestling with the complex mechanical 6-pin switches attached to the toggles, we realized we could control the motors digitally: sending 5V to one end and ground to the other moves the motor one direction; swapping them reverses it. This became simple Arduino code sending HIGH vs. LOW outputs.
I patiently stripped wires, soldered pins, and connected them to motor drivers on my breadboard. I connected them to digital input Arduino pins, and wrote a test function to try and get each other actions moving back-and-forth.
int lastValue = -1;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Match baud rate with p5.js
pinMode(2, OUTPUT); // up
pinMode(3, OUTPUT); // down
pinMode(4, OUTPUT); // power
pinMode(8, OUTPUT); // left
pinMode(9, OUTPUT); // right
pinMode(11, OUTPUT); // up
pinMode(12, OUTPUT); // down
digitalWrite(4, HIGH); // stay on }
It worked! At this point, the claw machine looked like a b*mb, and was ready to be hacked. Now all I needed was the right input.
The technical hack was complete, but I needed meaning behind it. As a concept-first artist, I couldn't just make an alternative claw machine. What stood before me was my desire to turn it into something interesting.
The idea that I kept going back to is that claw machines are rigged.
Everyone knows this, yet people still feed them quarters believing this time might be different. I began seeing parallels everywhere: rigged systems we willingly engage with, many, out of necessity. That's when the critique on manifestation culture came along.
Manifestation exploded during the pandemic when people desperately sought control over their spiraling lives. Before it became Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2024, Google searches for "manifesting" increased 600% in early 2020 as lockdowns stripped away agency and predictability. Algorithms also rewarded the visually engaging content of vision boards on Pinterest and Tiktok, like the examples below:
But manifestation and affirmation culture carries a dark undertone: it creates what critics call "toxic positivity," suggesting that negative circumstances result from insufficient positive thinking. This victim-blaming philosophy seems particularly callous in a world of systemic inequalities beyond individual control. The promise that you can think your way to success mirrors this claw machine's false promise that if you keep trying and stay positive, you’ll win eventually.
Both systems profit from hope while being engineered for failure.