ANTONIN ODIN

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Thor MachineA low-cost machine designed for craftsmanship, created to sustain the French tradition of perforated cards for barrel organs. Its design intention is to translate manual craft gestures into automated mechanical movements.

Orgues Odin
For two generations, my family has been designing and crafting mechanical barrel organs. These French traditional mechanical instruments play music using punched cardboard — one of the earliest forms of programmable media.

Valse d’amélie poulain - Yann Tiersen
Imagine – John Lennon



Machine Gesture
I designed and build a low-tech machine to punch our own cardboards. It was designed around three essential actions, inspired by a manual gesture:

1. Pull – Moving the cardboard forward.
2. Punch – perforating note by note.
3. Score – creating fold lines. 
1. Pull
For accurate punching and folding, the machine moves the card in controlled steps, mimicking manual movement.


2. Punch
The punching module uses a square hollow punch with a pneumatic cylinder, calibrated to remove just enough material without strain. A 20 mm HMPE 1000 plastic block absorbs the impacts.



3. Score
To create clean folds, the cardboard is scored — not cut — halfway through its thickness (0.3–0.4 mm), on both sides. Replaceable circular blades, spaced every 12 cm, ensure consistent depth and width.



Process
Developed as an R&D tool for a traditional craft workshop, this machine was built under €1000, following a COATS logic: simple, modular, low-cost. A Python script converts MIDI files into G-code, sent via LinuxCNC (Mesa card).

Artistic Project
This machine also opens new creative paths — from custom-composed perforated scores to scenographic performances. Shown here: Moftarak by Compagnie Masseart, where moving punched cards became part of the stage design (Interazioni Festival, Rome 2024).