Sign Of The Times: 

A Rube Goldberg Machine That Tweets

So it has come to this: Even our Rube Goldberg machines, those monuments to inefficiency, are exploiting social media, today’s monuments to efficiency.

Melvin the Machine is a Rube Goldberg machine that does what all Rube Goldbergs do: perform simple tasks as extravagantly as possible. But he’s got a loftier goal in life: shameless self-promotion. So when he does a live show -- popping balloons and smashing porcelain hippos and lighting stuff on fire -- he snaps photos and shoots video of his audience, then posts everything online. He has more than 400 friends on Facebook. Naturally, he tweets, too. (Oct. 31: “I made a picture”; Oct. 31: I made a picture”; Oct. 31: I made a video.”)

 

A mindless machine -- seemingly complex, but ultimately unburdened by any substance -- who manipulates the levers of modern communication in the name of self-invention? Melvin just might be the ultimate 21st-century celebrity.

Melvin the Machine was developed by the Dutch design studio HEYHEYHEY. More info here. 

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