Okay, so Zoundz first made the rounds of the blogosphere when we were vacationing in Mexico this spring, so it's not technically our fault we were so late to the game.
But oh what a marvelous game indeed.
On so very many levels, the Zoundz "device" made by the folks at Zizzle represents the intersections of innovation, culture and technology circa 2007.
From one perspective, Zoundz is a sound toy designed for young children. But even though it was marketed at Wal-Mart and other major retailers, its $50 price tag likely proved too steep for most parents. Besides, most folks likely had no idea what this thing really was...
But as word began to spread among the kind of folks who travel in bent circuit arenas, Zoundz began to pick up a life of its own. Suddenly, what might appear as a puzzling, cryptic, over-priced piece of junk to a parent becomes downright magical in the hands of young folks, trend-setters, designers and well nigh anyone else whose ever had the urge to build their own time travel device, replace their eyes with cameras or examine the inner workings of their own brain.
We think of Zoundz as a sort of open source soundscape for the bent circuit set. Or, as one colleague commented, ..."the pinnacle of acid toys in a world LSD appears to have sadly forgotten." The basic idea is that by moving around a set of weirdly shaped and textured "pawns," the user creates a variously textured soundscape reminiscent of "Music for Airports" era Brian Eno compositions.
And just to be most clear, your child may well tire of this thing in five minutes. But if you happen to be the sort of person who is much more concerned with the journey rather than simply getting to the end, you will have a new way to waste hours of your time.
Because mere words cannot to the Zoundz justice, consider this YouTube video of the Zoundz in action...
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