music instrument

Sound installation from Arno Fabre - 2003 / 2006.

Eight percussion instruments – a cymbal, a timpani, a lithophone, a piece of wood, a red rubber band, a tagine cooking vessel, three marimba blades and eight flower pots are laid out in a circle and hanging in semi-darkness. Attached to the ceiling right above them, a network of cables and pipes is connected to a machine filled with water and composed of 24 drippers. Controlled by a computer playing a digital sheet music (Midi file, read by the software Max/MSP), the machine causes the water to drip on the percussion items hanging just below. The water drops fall as dictated by the music score, creating a real musical composition for water drops. The acoustic sounds produced by the percussion tools are amplified and broadcast through four loud speakers. There is no sound processing, or playing of recorded music, but only the sound of the impact of the drops. The water gradually fills up buckets as the music plays, and for sure, at some point, the buckets will have to be emptied.

25 prepared dc-motors, filler wire 1.0mm Zimoun 2010:
zimoun.ch

Installation by Kathy Hinde kathyhinde.co.uk

"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 5x5 grid to correspond to the motors and solenoids which are also arranged in a 5x5 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
First created in 2008, this new version commissioned by Lumin, May 2010 for Concrete and Glass Festival, 20 Hoxton Square Gallery, London"