The Piano Visual Bar

The Piano Visual Bar is a mechanical device, a system of switches that are implanted inside a piano. The switches turn on and off by the touch of the keys, translated into different animations. The playing generates the visuals, and the visuals affect the way the player plays. The P.V.B was completed in 2011 and was part of my application process to the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons The New School for Design (NYC).

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Thanks to

  Video: Camera: Daniel Morgan, Tamar Tal Piano: Amit Dolberg

Reuven Israel, Frank Henne Itamar Shimshony

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Development:

Flashduino: Shachar Geiger Flash: Mor LasryOz Malul

Special Thanks to Reuven Israel

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The following project was a submission to the Open Hardware Scholarship awarded by the Open Hardware Summit 2011.

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The Story

I hadn’t touched a piano since the age of 14 (after playing for nine years). A friend of mine left Israel and offered me her piano as a long-term loan. Sitting and staring at it, I had the desire to take this perfectly evolved, manual, massive, traditional musical instrument and add a visual dimension to it.

The idea was simple: I wanted every key of the piano to activate a visual interaction in addition to its sound (without damaging my friend’s piano). I opened up the piano and started digging. The research and work on the project took several months. With the help of friends and specialists from different fields, I developed a mechanical device implanted inside the piano. A system of switches in strategic points turned on by the touch of the keys. The electric signals, translated by the computer, are projected as colors, shapes and images on to screens around the piano.

To test this first prototype of the Piano Visual Bar (P.V.B), I invited friends and musicians for ‘jamming’ sessions with it. I was very excited to see their reactions. The P.V.B. directed their playing and created an interaction between the music that they played and the shapes that were screened. The players tried to control the patterns and images. After giving consideration to some of the musician’s insights, I am now adjusting the P.V.B. to fit their needs better. I’m working on the inner logic of the images that will better reflect the piano’s structure.

One of my main motives for inventing the P.V.B. was to add an element of fun and playfulness to something that for me is associated with hours of dull repetition, practicing scales. In an environment mainly designed for efficiency, fun and playfulness are often unfairly regarded as unimportant. I believe that the ability to ‘play’ is important for the human experience and should reenter adult life in a range of aspects.

Nowadays, design does much more than just determine the visual aspect of things. A great effort of design focuses on looking with a fresh eye on regular ‘things’ in the reality that surrounds us. Trying to rethink and change them into something that relates better to the person using them in a more playful way, which allows the user to influence and determine the use.

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The Process

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Split screens notes divided to right and left:

My brother - the pianist Amit Dolberg - suggested to split the screen into right and left hands, to have the graphics better represent the logic of the playing.

Right hand #1-24 control right or upper side of the screen. Left hand #25-48 control left or bottom. 

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Full screen mode (still available), Right and Left, Up and Down, split two screen left and right.

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The Pedal No more timing with configuration files. The pedal is the 49th switch, allowing a modes changing while playing.

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Attached with clamps, one on each side.

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The "PhotoGallery" no. 2 mode.  Photographs from the screen, taken while playing.

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The layout of one of the "PhotoGallery" modes. 48 PNG files, one for each note, with transparent background so you can see multiple photos (accords of photos) in the same time. Each photo is smaller than the other.

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Another "PhotoGallery" layout. Accord of childhood landscapes.

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I control the modes change with the configuration file

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I began working on the Flash with Mor and Tal = The fun part.