ruben stelli turns toilet paper into a musical instrument to play the popcorn song

with a lot more time on their hands the past few months of lockdown has brought inspiration to the minds of many artists and designers, and none more so than ruben stelli. offering a more whimsical response to the ongoing COVID-19 health pandemic, the dutch creative shares with us his recently finished project: popcorn song by toilet rolls.

all images and video courtesy of ruben stelli

inspired by the rush to buy toilet paper that was witnessed in many countries when lockdown measures where first announced, stelli got the idea to use the then in-demand product to play one of his favorite songs, popcorn. using only empty toilet rolls and the paper itself to make the sounds, the musical piece took more than three months of experimentation and assembly to complete.

for about two and half minutes, stelli has recorded a remarkable variety of sounds using just toilet roll. from dropping full and empty rolls on the surface, to twisting the paper up to create some sort of makeshift string instrument, the project is surprisingly impressive. 

the original popcorn song, which has become instantly recognizable, was first composed in 1969 by gershon kingsley. although not confirmed, its said that the name of the early synth-pop instrumental makes reference to the short staccato sounds, similar to popping corn.  

project info:

project name: popcorn song by toilet rolls
artist: ruben stelli

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: lynne myers | designboom