In occasione del suo passaggio alla Roundhouse di Londra (7-31 Agosto), abbiamo una immagine un po’ più accurata dell’installazione Playing the Building di David Byrne di cui abbiamo parlato in febbraio.

It’s all mechanical. There’s no speakers, there’s no electronics, or any of that modern rubbish.

È un po’ buffo che Byrne chiami “rubbish” quello con cui ha giocato fino all’altro ieri. Ma forse questo approccio si adatta alla struttura vittoriana della Roundhouse, che, in origine, era un capannone adibito alla riparazione di motori a vapore.

In realtà Byrne sfrutta, con grande spiegamento di mezzi, idee che girano come minimo dagli anni ’70 (se non prima) e hanno raggiunto una certa notorietà all’epoca delle performance Fluxus (far suonare gli oggetti). Cioè, in questo caso quello che fa non è farina del suo sacco. Però almeno, grazie alla sua notorietà, ha il merito di proporre le suddette idee a un pubblico che altrimenti non le avrebbe mai conosciute…

Ed ecco anche un nuovo video

Installation by Kathy Hinde
The inside of an old upright piano, rescued from destruction, is transformed into a kinetic sound sculpture. Video projections move across the surface of the piano strings, triggering small machines to twitch and flutter causing the strings to resonate. The video is visually akin to a musical score or piano roll, and this installation can also become the site for a live performance.
The video is analysed by a MaxMSP patch which divides the screen into a 5×5 grid to correspond to the motors and solenoids which are also arranged in a 5×5 grid on the piano. Movement or any change sensed in the video triggers a device in the corresponding square of the grid – the result is that the fluttering and movement of a bird triggers a device closest to it on the piano.
MaxMSP programming by Matthew Olden
Commissioned by Lumin, May 2010

Sun Boxes is a sound installation created by Craig Colorusso.

It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently each powered by solar panels. There is a different guitar sample in each box all playing together making the composition. The guitar samples are all of different lengths so the whole piece keeps evolving.

Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers. It sounds different inside of the array.  There is a different sense of space inside. Certain speakers will be closer and louder therefore the piece will sound different to different people in different positions throughout the array. Creating a unique experience for everyone.

There are no batteries involved. The Sun Boxes are reliant on the sun. When the sun sets the music stops. The piece changes as the length of the day changes making the participants aware of the cycle of the day.

It’s a very interesting idea. I would like to know how powerful each speaker is. 5 Watt? 10?

Playing the Building is a sonic project by ex-Talking Head David Byrne that came to London in 2009. You could sit down at an “antique organ” and hit whatever keys or chords your heart desired—but you wouldn’t be producing notes.

You would instead trigger a “series of devices,” as Byrne describes them: hammers and dampers distributed throughout the building in which you sat. Distant windowpanes and metal cross-beams, hooked up to wires, would begin to vibrate, tap, and gong. Imagine someone like this sitting in the darkness beneath Manhattan, causing haunted musics and unexplained knocks inside rooms and abandoned buildings around the city. Now, even urban infrastructure will be musicalized.