Thursday, January 10, 2008

Art-o-mat

Art-o-mats are retired cigarette vending machines, converted into original art dispensers and placed in art museums in cities worldwide. This Art-o-mat is in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street.

14 comments:

  1. Much better idea than dispensing cigarettes. The machines look lovely though.

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  2. How neat, a great way to reuse something everyone recognizes.

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  3. Kool! er, I mean cool.

    I remember when these machines were everywhere and it was a thrill to pull the lever and have a brand new pack of cigarettes come sliding down the chute. Unfortunately, what you got was usually a pack of stale cigarettes.

    The machines definitely work better as art than for their original purpose.

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  4. This is so cool! Don't remember seeing them. Do they really dispense art, and do you know where you'd buy tokens?

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  5. This is also a way to prove how it could be easy to convert industrial features into beautiful piece of art.

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  6. Thank you Clarice, Jim, Clueless, R&R and Fabrizio--and hi Clarice, it's nice to meet you! These are really neat machines, the tokens are available at the cultural center gift shop just across from where it is--

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  7. I remember these machines when they acutally dispensed cigarettes. I think they were pretty common, at least on the south side where I grew up. The way that they have been recycled and reengineered is very clever.

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  8. I am so culturally not in the loop!! cute photo and cute idea!

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  9. how fascinating, what sort of art do they dispense? size? is it random or can you see the item and get the one you choose? The machines are a work of art in themselves.

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  10. Chicago has changed so much since I left there in 1988--seemingly for the better. Art-O-Mats are an example of how it's changed (so is the big silver bean).

    Found you through Jim in Terrell, Texas and I love your blog. Just a new one I'm going to have to check every day!

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  11. Thank you Sam and Petrea!

    sam, i'll have to go back and buy something before i can tell you, i do know that the artomat artists are varied, some work in textile, some are painters, etc. i imagine the pieces are mini versions of their regular work

    Petrea, thanks for coming by and i hope to see you here again

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  12. I'm an artomat artist also. I've added a separate area on my blog to list artomat artist blog. Mosey over and click on my follow button so we can promote each other. ;)

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