Skeleton Orchestra

Italian artist Amedeo Capelli handcrafts whimsical automata scenes. When he decided to make a whole orchestra of skeleton musicians, he soon found out it was a lot more work than he had intended. The finished piece contains thousands of individually carved bits of wood, plus the rope, iron, and aluminum required to wire all the movement controls together. A single skeleton's movements are controlled by a lever and wire, but to control them all without making them move in simple unison required that Capelli design an extra device. That control panel can be cranked by one person, but makes each skeleton move in its own way, which was what he was aiming for. Three weeks of intense work went into this orchestra. Here you watch them "play" Verdi's Dies Irae. (via Laughing Squid)