Festival tunes up with automated instruments
The outdoor exhibition of automated instruments interacting with lighting will last a month.
An exhibition featuring automated instruments has opened in the plaza in front of the 94-year-old Shanghai Concert Hall.
Lasting till May 26, 11 sets of automated instruments will interact with various lights for the exhibition.
An automated instrument refers to a device that is controlled by a computer or other advanced technology to perform tasks with minimal human intervention.
The exhibition is part of the Digi Muse – 2024 Music + Technology Festival that started in March.
During the May Day holiday, visitors can interact with these instruments between 6pm and 7pm on May 1, 4 and 5, under the instruction of staff on site.
The automated instruments.
The instruments, created by artist Chen Junkai, were first introduced to audiences last year, at the sixth season of the concert hall's "Music Infinity" series intended to provide a stage for emerging artists and experimental performances.
"I hope such an exhibition of automated instruments will inspire us to think about music in the future," Chen explained.
"This work will create a new type of music performing method in the future, intended to integrate the interactive performance of automated instruments and algorithmic composition, becoming the future band."
Chen performed the season's finale, titled "From the Canyon to the Starry Sky – Super Rhythm Concert," in which he experimented with different technology for each piece.
In one of the pieces, he made an automated guitar and automated snare drum to perform a piece of music he composed, with about one-third of it programmed to respond to his hand gestures on the stage.
Having upgraded his experiment from last year, Chen now presents 11 such sets for the outdoor exhibition.
Fang Liang, general manager of the concert hall, added: "The festival is intended to support musicians to explore ways to integrate music and technology, and bring the most avant-garde works to those in Shanghai.
"With this exhibition, we are putting automated instruments outdoors for the first time, with very challenging backstage adjustment and preparations, as we hope to showcase the many potentials of music in the future."
