Art At an Arm?s Reach

Recently, Florida International University¿s Frost Museum acquired a cigarette vending machine that, instead of its traditional merchandize, sells small original works of art. Known as the Art-O-Mat, the machine works like any vending device, using tokens (priced at US$5) that are inserted through a slot, the customer pulls a lever and receives a package containing one original artwork. The Art-O-Mat was created by Timothy Clark Whittington, a 37-year-old artist living in North Carolina who thought up the machine as a conceptual art piece. It can be now found at the Whitney Museum in New York and the MoCA in Los Angeles. There are currently some 50 machines in 10 different countries, supplied by 400 artists, who in this way make their work known and bring it to the widest possible public. Steve and Michelle Lanster are the machine sponsors, and it was their idea to bring it to the Frost Museum.