AUDIO ACCOMPANIMENT

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK

see also Geiger Pianos

AUDIO ACCOMPANIMENT accompanies the John Cage exhibition, Every Day is a Good Day, April-June 2011. It is situated on the North Staircase, can be heard throughout the building and lit by two profile spots with blue lighting gels. An accompanying text is fixed to the wall.

The installation features a MIDI-controlled grand piano, which is triggered ‘live’ by cosmic ray particles to play a never-ending sequence of notes. The keys of the Yamaha DISKLAVIER piano move in a ghostly, magical way to produce sound each time a radioactive ‘stardust’ particle hits the Geiger counter (visible near the strings of the piano), MIDI controller and laptop connected to its USB input. The sequence generates an on-going series of notes and harmonies which play randomly within set tonal perameters, to create silences, then flurries of activity in a mysterious and intriguing way.

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