ICEBERG-1410

Old piano, solenoids, magnets, custom electronics, Arduino

An installation consisting of an open upright piano with visible strings, mechanics and detached parts. The sculpture is prepared with an hidden electromagnetic system which moves its keys and vibrates its strings by following real-time environmental data.

A piano represents a massive element with a powerful yet subtle sound. Despite its solidity, it is very fragile and subject to the aging process caused by time and environmental conditions. The instrument used in this installation has not been maintained for many decades, it has become an unusable object abandoned to itself. It dramatically reveals its state of deterioration as soon as it starts playing. Its sounds are inharmonic, crackling and unpredictable. It is in a slow but continuous state of deterioration and transformation as is the melting ice of our planet.

Iceberg-1410 wants to be a representation of changes, absence of control, disharmony, abandonment. Carelessness. Destruction. Emergency.

Ardia | L’Abbate, 2022

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Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM), as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR recovery programme.