Unprepared Piano - Thomson and Craighead
As part of a digital art exhibition at La Villette Numerique, Paris, artists Thomson & Craighead called upon our Head of Interactive Media for his technological expertise to develop the software needed for their Unprepared Piano installation. The artists wanted to deliver an interpretation of the work of John Cage by displaying an automated piano triggered by bespoke software and an integrated database of both piano and percussion scores.
The software was designed to select random MIDI files from the internet, taking sections from a variety of instruments, resulting in the piano performing not only melodies but also percussive rhythms. The piano changes key and tempo as the software shifts between files; the product is a transformation where traces of the original remain and a new automatic and random composition is created.
The piece has been exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Eyebeam New York and ISEA San Jose. Online documentation of this project is available at thomson-craighead.net
Services: bespoke software, hardware integration