Back in July, Andrew Carol built a replica of the Antikythera Mechanism out of Lego. Now we get to see how it all came together thanks to this beautiful short by Small Mammal films. Wow!
It’s the oldest known computer, a relic dating back 2000 years and rediscovered at the bottom of the ocean. Now designer Andrew Carol has brought it back to life – using Lego.
That’s not to say this project was child’s play – making the device was an engineering feat that required specialist Lego, and a lot of patience (see stop motion video above).
The idea came from journalist Adam Rutherford who had seen a Babbage Difference Engine built by Carol and got in touch. “I asked him if he’d heard of the mechanism, and if he thought it was doable in Lego,” says Rutherford. “A few weeks later, he sent me some pictures of a demo version he’d knocked up. It was stunning.”
I should really go through those three suitcases full of Technics pieces I have in my closet.
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cool video
I’m more impressed with the video itself! It looks like stop-motion (!!) but is it CG?
Tim, it was stop motion.