Marble Machine Subculture

100mm x 100mm base.

Marble machine subculture.

The marble machine is versatile. Molin is able to make it play bass percussion and a vibraphone using a series of levers that direct the rolling marbles where he wants them. Merrill heatter and bob quigley packaged the program with robert noah as executive producer. In the end it took two years beginning with 3d software designs.

The magnificent marble machine was an american television game show that featured a giant pinball machine as its centerpiece. Art james served as host and johnny gilbert was the announcer. Molin previously told wired the project was directly inspired by the existing marble machine subculture i stumbled over the marble machine culture it s a whole subculture and was always. Marble machines are complicated but useless pieces of toy machinery that automate the process of playing with marbles.

But as it turns out it s even more fun to watch an automated machine that plays with marbles. The 33 year old was inspired to build his machine after visiting a museum with mechanical instruments in utrecht netherlands. This automation could in theory lead to gains in productivity as people are now freed up to pursue more productive goals.