decap drawing device by broos designs record sleeves for dance organ music

decap drawing device by broos designs record sleeves for dance organ music
all images courtesy of ambroos stoffels

dance organs are big machines that contain several instruments which play live music, and thereby replace the musician. in response to this realization, ambroos stoffels wanted to replace himself as a designer by creating the ‘decap drawing device’ for his final year at sint-lucas art school in ghent, belgium.

the decap drawing device installation

the works are determined by the same system that defines the music played by the instrument, namely punched cards. within the construct, they function as stencils, whereas in the organ they contain the score. the production cost was kept very low by recycling as much material as possible with driving belts made from bicycle tubes and surfaces formed from reclaimed wood.

top view of the construct

by rotating the lever, a circular pattern is pressed onto the blank record sleeve. ‘I question my role as a designer by giving my job out of hand, every customer can design a record sleeve by his choice depending on parameters as the stencils and the pens. this is version 2.2, I emphasize this because I feel that this work is still in process. I’d like to optimize both the machine as its results,’ says stoffels.

the results represent punch cards

each line is created with a stencil

red, blue, and green sleeve

the record label containing all the information of the record

presentation of 10 DDD records 

infographic explaining the mechanisms

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.