ujoo+limheeyoung's mechanical phonograph generates music from plastic waste

the phonograph plays plastic waste like a record

Music generated from long-forgotten plastic waste emanates from Korean artist duo ujoo+limheeyoung’s new mechanical device, ‘Song From Plastic’. Drawing on Thomas Edison’s innovative tin foil phonographic approach, here, a discarded old clock, a cordless telephone, and an egg carton are given new life. Inscribed with grooves on their surfaces, the objects take on the role of a record — capturing and playing back sounds of children’s voices, joyful songs, and everyday noises. Equipped with a sensor, the device is triggered and activated, beginning to play its melodies as a visitor steps within a 1.5 meter radius. The musical installation was presented recently in Seoul’s Amorepacific Museum.

the machine plays back sounds captured on the plastic like a record | image courtesy K2 Studio

‘song from plastic’ by ujoo+limheeyoung

Reflecting on nuances of meaning held by human values, ‘Song From Plastic’ captures a record of various sounds that are at once exceedingly ordinary, yet ones that encapsulate the beauty of human experience, in pieces of plastic garbage. The project questions: ‘What sort of traces should humans be leaving behind? If we are going to leave a record of our ‘humanity,’ shouldn’t it be something other than plastic garbage?’

ujoo+limheeyoung draws their concept on a futuristic idea envisioned in a documentary on the Anthropocene. ‘The sounds of now-extinct beings emanate from a plastic fossil discovered by an intelligent lifeform from a future tens of thousands of years from now,’ comments the design duo.

installation view at Amorepacific Museum | image courtesy K2 Studio

image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

generating music from a discarded wall clock | image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

‘Song From Plastic’ applies the principle of a phonograph | image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

grooves embossed on a cordless telephone | image courtesy K2 Studio

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exhibition view | image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

grooves embossed on a wall clock | image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

grooves embossed on a membership card| image courtesy ujoo+limheeyoung

project info:

name: Song From Plastic
designer: ujoo+limheeyoung

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom