Winfried Ritsch has placed seven pianos in a circle of 20 meters diameter forming a heptagram. Eighty-eight robotic “fingers” on each of the seven pianos creates the possibility of a mass of 616 parallel notes which can be controlled via Ethernet from a central mixing location. The work, Heptapiano, becomes an organic formation of sound transformed out of more or less chaotic behavior of these robotic pianos where waves of phrases are synchronized and mutated using various algorithms. The first video, by Peter Venus, is of the setup process. The second, from Marian Weger, is a better slow-walk version that what I had filmed, so I’m grateful. The third is only the final section of one of the ones that I made because the beginning moments are so dizzying that I didn’t want you to watch it just in case you had just eaten lunch. Location: entrance to the Lentos Museum.
(thanks to Peter Venus)
(thanks to Marian Weger)