The Skinny Showcase: FOUND/Cybraphon
For their latest trick, Edinburgh-based artist collective FOUND have created a robot band called Cybraphon.
Inspired by early 19th-century automatic bands such as the orchestrion and the player piano, Cybraphon is an interactive, mechanical band in a box. Cybraphon consists of a number of acoustic instruments, antique machinery, and found objects from junk shops, played by over 60 robotic beaters and motors, all housed in an antique wooden display case.
But unlike the orchestrion and player piano, Cybraphon is emotional. Cybraphon’s repertoire has been composed especially by FOUND and spans a range of emotional states. Just like FOUND, Cybraphon is image-conscious and moody, and the music it performs depends on what state of mind it's in.
Cybraphon wants to be popular. Just by going to its website you will affect its mood and the kind of music it plays. Cybraphon regularly checks its MySpace page, worries about how many fans it has on Facebook, looks up its website stats and obsessively Googles itself to see what people are saying about it.
For example, this article in The Skinny will almost certainly cheer up Cybraphon and encourage it to play happier songs. However, Cybraphon is an insecure, egotistical band: a good review will cheer it up for a while, but once the initial excitement dies down it will soon become disillusioned if its fame does not continue to rise.
So why not feed Cybraphon’s ego? Visit its website www.cybraphon.com