Case study – Playing The Building，David Byrne, 2005

It is an interactive installation in which people touch the sound by playing the piano. In the centre of this old building there is a piano, each key is attached to a part of this old building, some are steel structures, some are wooden structures and some are made of glass. As people play on the piano, the implicated parts bump and rub against different parts of the old house. As a result, different parts of the old house make different sounds, each with its own timbre and tone. The participation of the people gives an old theatre, an abandoned place, its own ‘real’ sound.
What I like about this work is the way it is presented, it allows the visitor to participate in the work. People would line up neatly in front of the piece and one by one they would come forward and play music all by themselves. People experience and play with a childlike mindset, commemorating and listening to the sounds of an old house together.