The Csettegő project of Endre Koronczi was created at the time of the EU accession, in 2003 in a small village of north Hungary, Nagybörzsöny. The main element of the project was a "beauty contest" for the locally common technical "innovations", the home made vehicles, called csettegő – a name imitating their sound. The whole project was documented by the ethnographer Péter Lágler in his film Gépművészet (Machine-art), where he expresses the ethnographic dimensions of this contemporary tradition. The present study analyses the project and the film through theories on contemporary art (on public art, community arts and participation), and visual communication, the author positioning herself in three different dimensions: that of the machine-makers, the artist and the ethnographer. The study also searches the connections between the role and the "eye" of the artist and the ethnographer.