Klangkugelbahn at Waldkirch Sound and Organ Festival

This weekend I had the chance to help out with an amazing tinkering project, a 50 meter giant sound-based marble run at the 14th International Sound and Organ Festival, a street faire in the nearby city of Waldkirch. This giant chain reaction was organized by organ builder Achim Schneider in collaboration with Angela Witt-Meral and the team from the local Elztal Museum. The elements of the marble run were constructed by school kids, teachers, kindergarteners, parents and local artists with over 150 participants contributing to the design.

About one year ago, I met with Achim to think together about ways to facilitate the giant marble run. We walked the streets with a tape measure and discussed some of the practicalities of the project for participants and festival goers. Over the past year, he has been engaging with local tinkerers working on different elements of the machine and working to plan out all the connections.

One of the most amazing elements built for the sound marble machine was this ‘sinking ship’, a wonderful and whimsical chain reaction machine full of complex mechanisms. The ship was built by Frauke Meinders-Lücking and Dieter Lücking in their basement workshop and showed the high ceilings of this activity.

Other elements were built over the course of the year at local schools, kindergartens and museum workshops. In the morning on Saturday we all arrived to the courtyard of the Schwarzenberg School with all of the different stations that had to be linked together.

One important part of the planning process was having each of the elements mounted on wooden shipping pallets that could be easily moved around the space. This idea was borrowed from the ScienceCenter Netzwerk chain reaction machine from an ecsite conference some years back.

As well I think that the idea of the giant 25 cm diameter wooden balls as the key rolling helped a lot both with the technical side of construction and the viewing experience. While this element introduced some challenges of how to catch the heavy falling ball when it finished each part, the slow and steady movement and large size made the connections a bit more predictable. And visually it helped audience be able to follow the progress of the machine.

I love the community spirit that emerges in the moments of preparation for a big tinkering event. It was clear that everyone was proud of what they made and there was a bit of pressure to get everything working in time. But crucially it was a collaborative feeling instead of a competitive one. Everyone wanted to make sure that their part contributed to the fun and function of the giant installation.

Before the festival officially opened we had our first test run of the machine from start to finish. The chain reaction began with a hand cranked organ built by Achim with the folded cardboard music eventually pulling the first wooden ball to the start of the ramp. The kugelbahn was full of ingenious mechanisms, beautiful soundscapes and suspenseful surprised. When the ball jumped off a trampoline, activated a Norman Tuck-esque bike wheel sound maker or released a handful of intricately carved wooden mice the onlookers oohed and aahed.

After a couple final adjustments we were ready for the first official set off of the machine. The crowd gathered (even in the summer heat) and joyfully counted down from ten to trigger the innaugural run of the “longest kugelbahn in the elztal”.

After the first set-off we ran the machine every twenty minutes for the entire festival afternoon. Each time the space was packed by people fascinated by the machine. Many watched multiple times. And we has so many great conversations about how the parts works, seeing everyday materials used in new ways and being inspired to try to make something similar at home.

I feel really lucky to be able to contribute to experiences like this that inspires kids and adults to collaborate with each other, iterate on designs, pose meaningful problems, come up with playful solutions and contribute to something bigger than their individual project. I’m once again impressed by the way that tinkering projects can catalyze a community, uncover amazing artists and offer possibilities for connections across different ages, cultures and levels of experience.

From the first organ powered folding cardboard music ball release to the last cannon shot to ship’s bell, all of the participants created new and innovative designs. I’m hoping to continue the collaboration with all of the project partners and create more participatory tinkering experiences like this one in the local area.