Joseph O'Connell

Creative Machines is a multi-disciplinary design and fabrication firm that creates interactive exhibits, kinetic rolling ball machines, site-specific sculptures, and public artwork. They were founded by current company President and Artistic Director Joe O’Connell.

The company story starts in the early '70s where Joe grew up near Thomas Edison’s West Caldwell, New Jersey laboratory. His grandfather had been friends with the Edison family and passed on stories, motors, parts and lab books that had been handed down by Edison himself.

Before the internet, people had to learn directly from teachers and spend long hours in library stacks. Joe studied history, literature, anthropology, philosophy, and physics at four universities. He traveled widely by bicycle, learning from inventors and visiting with scientists and artists of several generations along the way.

After working at Science North, Liberty Science Center, and Inveture Place, Joe learned museum master planning and exhibition design from the best. That led to starting Creative Machines in his garage in 1995. Even though the immediate market was museum exhibits, the goal was not to be an exhibits company but to eventually design and fabricate a wide range of interactive experiences.

Today, Creative Machines proudly calls Tucson home and is building creative interactive exhibitions and public art pieces that can be found all over the world.