Contraptions, kinetic sculptures, Rube Goldberg machines... I love this stuff.

Ronald van der Meijs, has brought together two artificial lungs, smokes hand-rolled cigars, and four recorders (a bass flute, alto, tenor, and a soprano) for a sound contraption he calls Play it one more time for me La Ville Fumée in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, once the European capital of Cigar production.

"In the old days the city was full of cigar smoke. There were lots of mechanical parts, steam, noise, and even whistles to start the work in the old cigar factories," Meijs says. "So this installation is in many ways a metaphor for the cigar production of Eindhoven."

"Play it one more time for me La Ville Fumée ' A sound-art installation that works on hand made cigars and refers to the history of Eindhoven city, when it was one of the largest cigar-producing cities of Europe. At that time the city was also called ‘La Ville Fumée’. The installation is in many ways about nature versus culture. The technique used here has an almost machine like character, that is controlled and monitored by a natural and traditional item: the hand made cigar. Because each cigar has its own strength by the natural and traditional way of making, they all have their own fire rate. It is precisely this fact that the installation is not working in a predictable way but rather relates to a more or less natural rhythm. The installation has 4 tuners each control a recorder by means of pistons containing the hand-rolled cigars. There are 4 different recorders: a bass flute, alto, tenor, and a soprano. The pistons with the cigars and the recorders are both controlled by 2 abstract lungs. This sound-art burning cigar installation can be seen as a tribute to the former tobacco industry of Eindhoven city and its thousands of workers and craftsmen. The sound composition is a requiem for the former cigar production industry of Eindhoven. Dimensions: 500 x 500 x 120 cm Materials: silk, epoxy, wood, brass, hand made cigars, pvc pipes, recorders Year: 2013 Concept and production: Ronald van der Meijs http://www.ronaldvandermeijs.nl Location: Art Foundation De Fabriek, Eindhoven, Netherlands http://www.defabriekeindhoven.nl/

via Co.Design