Sound Before Sound I: One and Three Scores

A long piano roll that was once used to activate an old player piano is now a surplus cultural item. Realigned by the artists as an illuminated horizontal scroll, the piano roll invites new readings as a visual score, as a graphic data array, as an undulating topography or as an artefact possessing other analogies. The score suggests a number of readings without it actually being played, transforming the utility of the piano roll to expressions beyond its original intention.

A winding speaker array unfurls above the piano roll as another type of score, emitting a changing series of sonic inflections that might be derived from the roll without playing it through a player piano.


Exhibitions
Sonia Leber and David Chesworth: Where Lakes Once Had Water, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Australia (2022)

Credits
Light element developed with Malte Wagenfeld and Thom Luke
Sound system development Rowan Cochran
3D printing Remi Freer

Acknowledgements
Supported by the School of Art and the School of Design at RMIT University. Commissioned by TarraWarra Museum of Art

Photo credits
Installation views at TarraWarra Museum of Art by Andrew Curtis