Music Boxes
Bloomington, IN. Interpreting the Square. 2009
LISTEN HERE
I created an installation fusing modern technology and antique music box mechanics. The sounds of the installation include the common timbre of antique music boxes, as well ever-changing, generative and rhythmic soundscapes taken from real-time recordings of the music boxes. In the gallery, each time a nickel activates the sonic process, a completely different performance of the piece is recorded and then generated for the listener. Each coin slot allows the "customer" to initiate two different sonic processes at any time. The software driven system allows each listening experience to be completely different, yet still bound by a flexible framework designed by the artist. Within the building on North Walnut, businesses have flourished and dwindled, all the while bound by the limitations of the structure's walls and inhabitants. I wanted to design sounds that resemble this sort of indeterminacy and potential.
