Sweet! This project is totally doable with household materials (printer, paper, thicker paper, white glue, scissors, and a razor edge). Just print out these paper parts, fold, cut, glue, and after 3 hours (including drying time) you will have a playable train whistle. I used regular printer paper for the bellows and a thicker, sketch-book paper for the pipes and other parts. The sound that the whistle produces is what you would expect from a mini paper organ - soft and simple but very amusing! Edit: and *cute*!

Paper machines are awesome and fun to make. Check out Paper Automata and How to make a working paper clock.

I just ordered the paper pipe organ kit so I will keep you posted with how that works out. Please subscribe to the rss feed to stay updated.

There is just something about pipe organs, especially the circus-sounding type, that really tickles me.

Above: Giant “heavenly” drum (src)

Above: Costumes covered in silver bells (src)

Above: “Drum Cart” during closing ceremony August 24, 2008. (src)

Above: Flower drums with icons (notice the flowers on the drums) at the Temple of Heaven Park. (src)

Above: Opening ceremony drummers at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. (src)

Above: Astounding tower covered in replicas of ancient Chinese bells outside of McDonald’s inside the Olympic Green. (src)

Above: Drum tower outside of McDonald’s inside the Olympic Green. (src)

Above: Audience participation drum. (src)

Above: Drummers with drum appendages at the Edinburgh festival cavalcade. (src)

Above: Olympic drumming during the closing ceremony. (src)

Above: A sea of percussionists on fou drums (traditional containers for storing wine) during the opening ceremony. (src)

Above: Two “heavenly” drums approach each other above 200 drummers. (src)

From Beijing 2008 Olympics:

The drum has the distinct symbolic meaning in traditional Chinese ceremonies; the drumbeat indicates the commencement of the ceremony. The drumbeat calls people to gather together, to express common dreams and passion through grand ceremonial performance.

The Telemegaphone Dale loudspeaker will continue to “speak” incoming phone calls until September 20th, 2008. For those of you who don’t know, Telemegaphone Dale is a 23-foot-tall wind-powered loudspeaker sculpture that picks up incoming calls and projects them into the mountains of Norway and the nearby village of Dale. Read more about this on Oddstrument here.

Unsworn Industries was kind enough to update us with some answers to some frequently asked questions (interesting) and a video from the opening ceremony - a call from Brooklyn, NY by sound artist Bora Yoon who played his 5-minute “Telemegaphone Concerto.” The performance was recorded from 2 miles away from the Telemegaphone so turn up your volume!

Q&A on Telemegaphone Dale:

What does it sound like?

If you are the caller you can hear a faint echo of your voice/sounds.

In Dale the sound is quite magical. It fills the whole valley like a soft voice from above.

How loud is it?

On a calm day you can hear the Telemegaphone sounds in the centre of Dale, some three kilometers away from the Telemegaphone.

The Telemegaphone is intended to be loud enough for people in Dale to be able to distinguish words and phrases, but subtle enough not to wake anyone up in the middle of the night.

What do the people of Dale think?

Some people complained that the volume was too loud for sleeping with open windows during calm, warm summer nights. After adjusting the volume slightly, others complained that the volume was now too weak.

One woman said: “This is great. I will sit on my porch with a cup of tea and listen to the world.”

Another woman said: “We like things a little bit crazy here in Dale.”

Expect many more opinions from Dale-ites to be published here in September.

Linsey Pollak, very entertaining

Happy Saturday, thanks for reading.