Peter Weibel, Bernd Lintermann

Year
2019

Medium / Material / Technic
Interactive installation, computer, 3D camera, self-developed software, screen
Production of the ZKM | Hertz-Lab

Place
Musikhaus Schlaile, Kaiserstr. 175

Opening Hours
Mon–Sat, 10 am – 8 pm

In the interactive installation »Music Passenger«, viewers transform music as they pass by. Original compositions can change into completely new pieces in the twinkling of an eye, according to how viewers interact with the work.

The notes of piano pieces by old masters run on staves across a large screen and are simultaneously translated into corresponding sounds. At the same time, a 3D camera registers body movements and gestures among the audience, which are pressed into the music paper as depth images and trigger the touch of the piano keys.

In the interaction, real and digital bodies, original and self-created composition, data and sound, all merge, and the body of the »passengers« themselves become a playable musical instrument – or even a learning algorithm that creates new pieces of music from existing sounds.

The MIDI data used in Music Passenger – data in which the pitch and velocity of a piece can be stored and played back on other devices – comes from recordings of the annual e-Piano Junior Competition held in Minneapolis. They were recorded by students Syuzanna Kaszo, Jun Li Bui and Yixiang Hou.

MIDI data © Fair Use 2017–2018 Yamaha Corporation of America. All rights reserved.