{"id":23386,"date":"2023-07-06T07:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T11:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=23386"},"modified":"2023-07-07T09:10:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T13:10:38","slug":"pinbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/07\/06\/pinbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists Customize PinBox 3000 Cardboard Pinball Machine Kit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe wanted to make something that was very kinetic in our design and that would empower people to have a tactile experience in playing the game,\u201d explains Ben t. Matchstick, CEO of Cardboard Teck LLC, makers of the DIY cardboard pinball machine kit PinBox 3000.  \u201cWhat\u2019s cool about cardboard is it’s bendable, it\u2019s pliable, but it\u2019s strong, it\u2019s free, it\u2019s recyclable. \u2026 It\u2019s porous, it\u2019s lightweight. Cardboard and paper have a memory, once you bend it, it wants to go back into its original shape. And that\u2019s how PinBox works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philadelphia artists and makers customized the tabletop pinball game for the \u201cFlip the System\u201d<\/a> exhibition at Studio 34 Yoga in Philadelphia, which closes July 9, 2023. It’s aligned with their new Kickstarter campaign<\/a> to manufacture PinBox 3000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ben
Ben t. Matchstick. (Rich Wexler photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matchstick is based in Montpelier, Vermont, where he teaches, and runs after-school programs and residencies. He describes himself as \u201cBoxHead Professor of Cardboard Teck Instantute.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matchstick was part of Glover, Vermont\u2019s Bread and Puppet Theater company in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and there for many summers. The company is known for its giant papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 and cardboard puppets. \u201cWe used to do workshops at colleges and the puppeteers would always go to me to show how to make giant shapes out of cardboard,\u201d Matchstick says. \u201cAnd then everybody just started calling it cardboard teck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matchstick went on to start Montpelier\u2019s Langdon Street Cafe, \u201cwhere I\u2019d do regular cardboard insurgencies.\u201d (Through the cafe he also met Ana\u00efs Mitchell \u201cand we started working on \u2018Hadestown,’\u201d and for two years toured the show, which went on to Broadway and won several Tony Awards.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matchstick and lead designer and engineer Pete Talbot, now based in Minneapolis, devised a cardboard pinball machine that they prototyped via the laser cutter at the Generator Maker Space in Burlington, Vermont, in 2015. They\u2019ve moved to a faster manufacturing process: die-cuting paper shapes that plug into cardboard shapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPunch out and slot and tab targets and obstacles that plug right into the cardboard,\u201d Matchstick says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of magical how it comes together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With digital artist Michael Tonn and graphic designer Raychel Severance, they\u2019ve launched a new Kickstarter campaign<\/a> to raise funds for a new production manufactured in Philadelphia and Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2023 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\u201cFlip
\u201cFlip the System\u201d exhibition at Studio 34 Yoga in Philadelphia. (Rich Wexler photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cFlip
\u201cFlip the System\u201d exhibition at Studio 34 Yoga in Philadelphia. (Rich Wexler photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cFlip
\u201cFlip the System\u201d exhibition at Studio 34 Yoga in Philadelphia. (Rich Wexler photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cFlip
\u201cFlip the System\u201d exhibition at Studio 34 Yoga in Philadelphia. (Rich Wexler photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe wanted to make something that was very kinetic in our design and that would empower people to have a tactile experience in playing the game,\u201d explains Ben t. Matchstick, CEO of Cardboard Teck LLC, makers of the DIY cardboard pinball machine kit PinBox 3000.  \u201cWhat\u2019s cool about cardboard is it’s bendable, it\u2019s pliable, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,115],"tags":[1051,13,1052],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23386"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23399,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23386\/revisions\/23399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}