The hills are alive with the sound of pinballs...
September 28, 2016 12:32 PM   Subscribe

Jollyball is a rolling ball sculpture by Charles Morgan. (site is in French, but a short film on Morgan is in English.) It debuted at the Expo 86 Switzerland Pavilion in Vancouver, Canada, and is seen briefly in this Expo 86 promotional video. It is now located at the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, which means we can now see videos of the pinball's entire 5 minute adventure through Swiss life.
posted by Theta States (7 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
AIEEEEEE I got to see this in real life at MSI! It takes forever.
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:55 PM on September 28, 2016


There are at least two of these. I've seen the one at the MSI and one in Switzerland. Here's a link to the one in Lucerne.
posted by lagomorphius at 1:07 PM on September 28, 2016


There are at least two of these. I've seen the one at the MSI and one in Switzerland. Here's a link to the one in Lucerne.

Cool, thanks for the link. That one is the Jollyball predecessor. From Morgan's website:
1984 « Tourismusflipper » commandé par Suisse Tourisme (en permanence au Musée Suisse des Transports).
1986 « Jollyball » le plus grand flipper du monde (Inscription au Guinness Book).


I hope to find documentation of the one that came in 1989:
Worldball » Expo Isetan Gallery, Shinjuku, Tokyo
posted by Theta States at 1:15 PM on September 28, 2016


I get the basics, but how do you activate Multiball, much less score the Super Jackpot?
posted by delfin at 2:45 PM on September 28, 2016


"Hidden Gem", for those that don't speak Chicago, means "we stuck it in the basement on the far wall of the food court behind the stairs"

Still a neat machine to watch while the kids are eating lunch.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:34 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think October is spoken for but can we make November rolling ball sculpture month? Maybe just a week? Maybe if we include kinetic sculpture races?

I'm having a hard time getting the scale of the thing: that ball is not a pinball but maybe more like apricot size?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:32 AM on September 29, 2016


Here's a picture for scale.

If it's not pinball-sized (1-1/16" diameter), it's slightly larger, but not much more.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:43 AM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]


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