Beats and Butterflies
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Since the mid-1990s, Jean-Pierre Gauthier has been exploring the sound potential and metaphorical of the found object. His kinetic installations combine humor and poetry. They conjure up notions of order and chaos, permanence and fragility, performance, choreography and gratuitousness. In the "Beats and Butterflies" interactive sound installation, a mechanized piano and a bench covered with pieces of aluminum tape are in the center of a dark room. Both are connected by rods and wire tensioners. Movement detectors placed on the bench capture the presence of visitors, which activates the notes (keys) of the piano and the pedal sostenuto (pedal middle) to produce random melodies. The piano stops playing when the visitor stops.
Discover this work and some 300 digitized works from the MAC collections available online.
