Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Another vintage project...
Anything vintage and mechanical piques my interest. So when I saw this vintage, mechanical Pachinko game my buddy found, my interest was piqued. It was in pretty good shape but wasn't functioning 100 percent. The hammer and feeding mechanisms were right but the jackpot payout wasn't working, so he brought it in to the shop and we torn into it.
Pachinko is a foreign cousin to the slot machines in some respect. In their heyday, they were used by many as a recreation, often times with an element of gambling involved. The early models were completely mechanical and gravity-driven so pretty straight forward in terms of the internal workings. The intricacies of the springs and levers matches that of the mechanical aspects of the photobooth and shares a certain autonomous quality.
It was a fun project stripping it down, learning the workings, and then reassembling it. After a short time we had it working like a charm and gave us a great excuse to turn the shop into a makeshift Pachinko parlor for an evening.
Pachinko is a foreign cousin to the slot machines in some respect. In their heyday, they were used by many as a recreation, often times with an element of gambling involved. The early models were completely mechanical and gravity-driven so pretty straight forward in terms of the internal workings. The intricacies of the springs and levers matches that of the mechanical aspects of the photobooth and shares a certain autonomous quality.
It was a fun project stripping it down, learning the workings, and then reassembling it. After a short time we had it working like a charm and gave us a great excuse to turn the shop into a makeshift Pachinko parlor for an evening.
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| Pachinko! |
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Austin Faces Project...
Here is a neat project using the photobooth as a tool to study a place, and in turn study the culture of that place. The creator, Greg in Austin, has asked photobooth users at the Shangri-La booth in East Austin to attached their names, place of birth, and small thoughts to a strip of themselves, giving a direct account of the person and personality of the sitter.
We most often view photobooth strips without any additional information to help us paint a picture--no words and often times with no knowledge of the subject's whereabouts or attitudes at the particular moment. By adding the names and words of the subjects, these strips have become a direct historical (albeit, admittedly wholly unscientific) account of the drinkers at a particular bar in Austin on a particular night. The words themselves add an element of connection to the individuals while at the same time giving an interesting cross section of a greater unknown population.
Hope to see more as this project develops and evolves...
Check out the blog austinfacesproject.blogspot.com to watch as more strips are added.
We most often view photobooth strips without any additional information to help us paint a picture--no words and often times with no knowledge of the subject's whereabouts or attitudes at the particular moment. By adding the names and words of the subjects, these strips have become a direct historical (albeit, admittedly wholly unscientific) account of the drinkers at a particular bar in Austin on a particular night. The words themselves add an element of connection to the individuals while at the same time giving an interesting cross section of a greater unknown population.
Hope to see more as this project develops and evolves...
Check out the blog austinfacesproject.blogspot.com to watch as more strips are added.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
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