Technabob » matryoshka

Matryoshka + Theremin = Matryomin

Technabob — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:26:46 +0000

Ok, I’ve seen some weird musical instruments in my time, but I’m pretty sure this one takes the cake. This think may look like one of those Russian Matryoshka stacking dolls, but under the hood, it conceals a theremin. Yep, I told you it was weird.

Like a regular theremin, the Matryomin creates sounds when you adjust your hand position on the outside of it. When used properly, it can crank out tones that make this rendition of Love Me Tender sound like Elvis’ cat in heat.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

According to the guys who make this thing, it can crank out more than 5 octaves of sounds, but they still sound like strangled cats to me. If a single Matryomin wasn’t enough for you, here’s an entire Matryomin orchestra for your listening pleasure:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Frankly, I think they should be playing the Star Trek theme. Apparently, about 3000 of these oddities were made in Japan a few years back, and this one over on eBay can be yours for the low, low price of $499 (USD).

Kyle Bean’S Evolution of the Mobile Phone in Papercraft

Technabob — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:02:40 +0000

This amazing work of paper art envisions the evolution of the mobile phone using the style of those classic Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls.

Artist/Designer/Illustrator Kyle Bean recently created Mobile Evolution, an intricate set of nesting models from cardboard. See how each phone fits neatly inside it’s older, larger sibling?

Designs start with the classic late 1980s Motorola DynaTAC “brick” phone and take us all the way up to the Apple iPhone (though I’m not sure if that’s the 3GS there). See if you can name all the phones without cheating.

Be sure to check out the video clip over on Kyle’s portfolio page to see how they all fit together.

And if you happen to be in the UK, you can see Mobile Evolution in person for the next couple of weeks over at the YCN Building at 72 Rivington Street in London.

[via Creative Review via Tina Paterson via Wired via Gadget Venue (phew!)]

Audiomatryoshka Speakers Don’T Wobble, Won’T Fall Down

Technabob — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:05:41 +0000

The word Matryoshka isn’t exactly a part of the English vernacular, but once you realize that it’s really just the Russian name for those little nesting dolls your grandmother has sitting on her mantle, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

This concept for a set of speakers the designer calls “Audiomatryoshka” is definitely bold, if not a little over-the-top for most decorating styles. From where I’m sitting, the magenta-colored “dolls” could also pass for psychedelic pink penguins or maybe some electric purple bowling pins – perfect for a trippy dream sequence out of The Big Lebowski.

Russian designer Alex Mamontoff created these speakers as his way of modernizing the classic art form and making it more relevant to today’s audience. But the fact that you can’t open them up and put one inside the other sort of defeats the purpose, IMHO.

The artist has no plans at this point to manufacture these speakers at this point, but Mamontoff has actually made a working model of the speakers using a rapid prototyping system. In the mean time, if you want some penguin-shaped speakers, you might have to settle for these.

[via Behance]

Art Lebedev’S Data Dolls Store Nothing but Themselves

Technabob — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:35:39 +0000

If you’re unfamiliar with the Russian craft of Matryoshka, they’re those little stacking wooden dolls that fit inside one-another, gradually getting smaller and smaller. Designer Art Lebedev has taken these traditional dolls and put a geeky spin on them, adding data storage measurements to each one.

So the big mama is a Petabyte, inside her is a Terabyte, followed by daughter Gigabyte – and so forth – all the way down to a teensy little baby Bit.

The set of 7 dolls is handcrafted by artisans from Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod and comes inside an intricate Birch wood container, and can be found over on Charles & Marie for $220.