kyouei design: 800 musical movement infiniti digital art competition shortlisted entry

‘800 musical movement’ involves the orchestration of 800 music boxes

‘800 musical movement’, a conceptual instrument by japanese designer kouichi okamoto (kyouei design), involves the computer-driven orchestration of hundreds of individual analog note-playing devices, thus together creating complete songs and music. okamoto designed the piece for designboom’s ‘infiniti digital art competition‘, which asked participants to design innovative or interactive digital artworks under the theme of ‘inspired performance’, for installation in new centers that infiniti is opening throughout europe.

the project involves the creation of 800 original music boxes, each with a single tooth to play one tone. connected to a computer system, each music box is activated in turn to together create songs, harmonies, or ambient sounds out of the combined work of the individual tones. because the system is controlled by computer, an element of interactivity via environmental input or user control could also be added to the project in a variety of ways.

the music boxes are mounted into the shape of the INFINITI logo onto a wooden board, measuring approximately 3100mm wide by 2100mm tall (10.2 x 6.9 feet).

while this concept detail shows ordinary music boxes that play complete songs, each piece in ‘800 musical movement’ custom created with a single tooth, thus producing only a single tone

‘800 musical movement’ is not the first unconventional instrument to be conceptualized by okamoto; see also designboom’s coverage of ‘pendulum sound machine‘ that reappropriates a record player’s rotations to activate a small pendulum instrument.

concept construction diagram of the assemblage connected to a computer control system

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‘800 musical movement’ was one of 21 shortlisted entries in the first round of the ‘infiniti digital art competition’. from these 21 projects, infiniti will select six designs for installation, beginning with the first new center in manchester, UK. stay posted! designboom will announce the six winners the first week of september.

do you have your own vision for an installation? the next round of the ‘infiniti digital art competition’ begins this autumn! a new theme and new design opportunities await your creativity. check back this october to the designboom homepage or competition call.