Space Becomes The Instrument, 2009

Gordon Monahan - Meaford, Canada / Berlin, Germany

Sound Installation

This installation and performance inverts traditional staging by using the audience seating area and the balconies as the performance space. From the stage, the audience will view performers playing piano wires stretched across the interior of Massey Hall.

Thirty-metre-long piano wires will be suspended across the interior of Massey Hall. Performers will create changing harmonics by pulling vibrating electrical coils along the strings. These vibrations are transmitted through a surround-sound speaker system encircling the hall.

Gordon Monahan's works with pianos, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments that span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation to sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance. Since 1978 he has performed internationally at places including: The Kitchen, New York, and the Sony Center, Berlin.

Suitable for all ages