Slave Pianos (Michael Stevenson, New Zealand/Germany b.1964; Danius Kesminas, Australia b.1966)
- Title
- A diagnosis
- Year
- 1998-2001
- Media category
- Ephemera
- Materials used
- limited edition boxed set of audio recordings, documents, texts and music scores
- Dimensions
-
32.0 x 32.0cm box
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Darren Knight 2002
- Accession number
- 19.2002.a-d
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Stevenson and Kesminas are the two visual artists that initiated Slave Pianos, but Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape, two Melbourne musicians, are also integral to this project. Slave Pianos grew out of the artists' common interest in the history and practice of visual artists' music works. Stevenson and Kesminias have collected original recordings of music by artists as diverse as Hany Armanious and Joseph Beuys, which have been recomposed, arranged and transcribed as musical scores for piano. These are performed by the Slave Pianos itself - a computer controlled mechanical piano reproducing the arrangements of the artists' music. The Slave Pianos becomes a visual personification of the original artists' performance. Kelly and Drape transcribe the music and Stevenson and Kesminias are responsible for the artwork and publication of the scores and for other visual accompaniments.
'A diagnosis' 1998-2001: Audio recordings, documents, texts and scores edited by Christoph Keller; essays by Robert Adlington, Giovanni Intra and Mark von Schegell; liner notes by John MacDonald.
- Bibliography (2)
-
'A long tale with many notes' by Jeff Pressing, Age Jul 2000, Jul 2000.
'Get ready for a big boom in sonic art' by Terry Ingram, The Australian financial review 17 Jun 2000-18 Jun 2000, 17 Jun 2000-18 Jun 2000, (illus.).
