Automata's Darker Side: Bunny's Bad Dream

Kinetic sculpture artist, Gina Kamentsky directed my attention to this piece by Aaron Kramer entitled, Bunny's Bad Dream. Kramer creates beautiful pieces using found materials.

From the Artist:
"The project was to create a piece of art from an instrument provided by the Zimmer Children's Museum. My interest in musical mechanical automata goes back to my childhood on the south side of Chicago. I remember standing in a penny arcade watching a mechanical orchestra, mesmerized by the cacophony of all the parts working in concert. Here I've created my own automata. In his cage a wind up velveteen bunny waves and plays a lull-a-bye. Crank the handle and a wheel turns a vintage tin clinker, that spins another music box mechanism riveted to a coffee can and that turns yet another. These play while a crank-arm turns circular movement into an up-down pumping action for a German tin toy top that plays a tune as it spins. After the riotous noise subsides the melody continues until the bunny is still. I chose several tin musical toys primarily because most of the cool looking instruments were chosen already.(violins, brass horns...) The final piece has 5 musical elements. The bunny that I found on ebay for a buck is a wind up and plays rock a bye baby."

Here is a link to Aaron Kramer's amazing flickr set.