Oh, the wonders of the world!

OMP82 / Cabinet project
Oh, the wonders of the world!

Melvin is a Rube Goldberg machine

Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine (Melvin the Machine or simply Melvin for friends) is a chain reaction or Rube Goldberg machine with a twist. Besides doing what Rube Goldbergs do best, performing a simple task as inefficiently as possible, often in the form of a chain reaction, Melvin has an online identity as well, which he uses to connect to and interact with his audience.

A brief history

When design studio HEYHEYHEY built their first Melvin late 2010 for art space MU’s Dutch Design Week show, they built it BIG because it needed to entertain loads of people all at once.

In the first months of 2011 they decided to rebuild the machine entirely to shoot a film of it which, to their surprise, went viral when it was posted online.

Early 2012, design studio HEYHEYHEY had some time to spare and they felt the need to challenge themselves once again, so they set out to build a new Melvin. This time around they could determine their own boundaries so they built a travel version that ‘sends’ its own postcards and interacts (in some way) with the people around it. Like a proper traveler, one could say.The first launch of the mini melvin took place in London 2012, in the framework of the Onomatopee groupshow Comfort Zone and Disillusion.

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Words and music by Woody Veneman © 2012 Zwaardvis Music/ Talpa Publishing (STEMRA).
Played, recorded and mixed by Woody Veneman. Second vocals by Eva Schmetz. Mastered by Pieter Kloos.
heyheyhey, Woody Veneman, Steye van Dam