Odd-o-Matic: Unusual Vending Machines

JUNE 14, 2011

Straddling the lines between conceptual art and convenient commerce, these unique vending machines dispense a few—sometimes surprisingly useful—surprises.

Thanks to innovative automation and some out-of-the-box ideas, you can push a button and dispense live lobsters (Japan), bicycles (Amsterdam), comfy flats after a night of dancing in heels (London) (CNBC), and gold bars in an uncertain economy (Germany) (CNBC). In New York City, if you’ve got a flat and need a quick fix, this bike-parts vending machine in Brooklyn (NYTimes) will dispense what you need (tire patch kits, pumps, brake pads) without the hassle, day or night. A vending machine (flickr: newavenewtype) at Bushwick arts center 3rd Ward dispenses necessary items like tape measures, dust masks, Altoids and…tins of sardines. The super-hip Standard Hotel featured—as a collaboration with surfwear company Quiksilver—a bikini and board shorts vending machine (via Refinery29) near the hotel’s pool. Ice cream company MooBella offers blend-your-own treats to suit your personality and your cravings via Ice Creamery Machines throughout the East Coast.

Art-o-mat may have been the first widely publicized marriage between art and the vending machine. The one in the Whitney Museum gift shop is a favorite with visitors, dispensing matchbook-sized original artworks. You can find the automated art dispensers at a variety of locations throughout the US. And, in a definite turn toward the conceptual, the “Passive-Aggressive Anger Release Machine” (via Gizmodo) by artists Yarisal & Kublitz offered the cathartic opportunity to smash fine china to bits for the price of a quarter.

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Odd-o-Matic: Unusual Vending Machines

JUNE 14, 2011

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