The Machine
Inspiration
Concept and art
Deep Note
THX
A cluster of detuned voices gliding into one chord. A model for tension-tuned strings gliding into tune.
Dogme 95
Danish film movement with a strict ten-rule "Vow of Chastity." Precedent for a numbered, rule-based movement with a central registry. Many certified films bent or broke the rules. A 2025 revival, Dogma 25, wrote a new rule set.
Graphic scores
Earle Brown, Cornelius Cardew
Scores made of images rather than notation, leaving sound and instrumentation to the performer: Earle Brown's December 1952 and Cornelius Cardew's Treatise. Precedent for a shared score that any failure could realize.
Oulipo
1960
French group making literature under self-imposed constraints. Georges Perec's novel La Disparition avoids the letter "e" entirely. Precedent for absurd constraints as a creative engine, the core belief behind the Machine.
Phasing
Steve Reich
Identical parts drifting out of sync against each other. A model for free-running units before the focus lock.
The Five Obstructions
Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth, 2003
Von Trier challenges Leth to remake his 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, each under a new set of obstructions. Constraints as the creative engine, and every remake another answer to the same prompt.
Wall drawings
Sol LeWitt, 1968 to 2007
Artworks that exist as written instructions carried out by other people; directions range from loose to exact. The model for the Machine as a set of rules others realize. His 1967 essay "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art" says "the idea becomes a machine that makes the art"; the Machine inverts this.
Mechanisms and instruments
Autoharp
Chord bars with felt mute all strings except the chord. A ready-made damper system for strummed instruments.
EBow
Electromagnetic string sustainer.
Electric pendulum clocks and escapements
A pendulum kept swinging by small timed pushes, or powered by a falling weight. Model for "direction decides when; physics does the playing."
Harpsichord action
Jack, plectrum, and damper; the damper lifts slightly before the pluck. Kit builders document string scaling and layout.
Hurdy-gurdy
A rosined wheel bowing strings; the rotating string drum turns it inside out.
Kick drum pedal
Converts a downward push into a forward beater swing, with return spring and rebound built in.
Leslie speaker
A rotating sound source; the windmill instruments move sound around the room in a similar way.
Marble Machine
Wintergatan
A hand-cranked machine that plays music by dropping marbles onto instruments. Gravity does the playing.
Metronome synchronization demo
Several metronomes on a loose shared platform drift, then pull each other into sync. Physical version of the focus lock; the Machine composes the moment instead of waiting for it.
Pedal steel changer and timpani pedal
Precedents for changing pitch by tension.
Pellet drums
Damaru and others
A two-headed drum twisted back and forth so beads on cords strike the heads. Model for the pellet drum.
Player piano
Precedent for mechanizing an existing keyboard instrument.
Small snares and parts
Candidates for the pellet drum. Prices checked October 2026.
Sympathetic strings
Sitar, viola d'amore, piano with the sustain pedal down. Precedent for the sympathetic resonance field.
Trip hammer
A rotating cam lifts a hammer and drops it. Model for the percussive windmill.
Robotic and mechanical music
Electro-mechanically assisted bass drum pedal
US patent 9190036
Logos Foundation robot orchestra
Godfried-Willem Raes
A long-running ensemble of robotic instruments.
Making Music With Machines
WPI course MU2801
MIDI Solenoid Drum Kit
Adafruit
OpenTurret
Open-source pan-tilt turret on two NEMA 17 steppers with belts and TMC2209 drivers, partly 3D printed. Model for the ball cannon's turret.
Printable spring trigger
Bri, on MakerWorld
Compact spring trigger mechanism for props, using a pen spring.
Robot that swings and climbs like Spider-Man
Hackaday.io
A pen-spring launcher fires a tethered grapple on Kevlar thread, a servo pushes the trigger, and a geared winch reels it in. Closest precedent for the ball cannon.
Solenoid drum kit
University of Rochester senior design
Each drum, including the kick, struck directly by a solenoid. An example of the engineering-first approach the Machine wants to avoid.
Solenoid-driven projectile launcher board
Questwise Ventures, on Tindie
Solenoid plus spring launcher; reset by hand.
Technology
DMX512
Stage lighting control: fixtures with their own power and an address, listening only. The model for the receive-only control system.
ESP-NOW
Connectionless broadcast mode on ESP32 boards; the proposed transport for first tests.
Slip rings
Rotary electrical joints for passing power onto a spinning part.
Trinamic StealthChop
Quiet stepper driver mode used in 3D printers.