A three dimensional wooden map of Eindhoven, The Netherlands wrapped around a turning cylinder — an external player piano mechanism — Stadsmuziek (City Music) was a 2011 design project by Akko Goldenbeld:
The tall buildings in the city centre have a heavy touch; the low-rise villas to the South create considerably gentler sounds. Akko Goldenbeld has a very personal way of looking at, or rather listening to, the city. He has created a scale model of Eindhoven and assigned it the role of sound recorder; the buildings create the score. Placed on a revolving wooden cylinder the buildings set little hammers in motion that play the keys of a piano. And turning and turning, the city makes its voice heard: from loud to soft, long to short, high-pitched to low, translating the urban developers’ three-dimensional reality into an aural experience.
Stadsmuziek (City Music) makes you tune in to the ensemble-playing that is environmental planning.
What would your city sound like if it was played on piano?
Related videos: how a music box works, The Wintergatan Marble Machine, The Wheelharp & The Viola Organista, a homemade Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte, Ma’agalim, Jane Bordeaux, & journeys inside an old penny arcade, and more pianos.via @aatishb.
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