My Orchestra of Machines

Pia van Gelder’s My Orchestra of Machines is a tabletop comprising eight individual automated constructions.

At one corner of the table sits an old turntable with some corrugated cardboard that has been gouged into placed on it. Once set in motion, the needle moves over the lines to produce a muffled rhythmic layer of sound. Sitting next to the turntable is a small motorised car that does backflips within a wooden box.

There’s a regular tick-tock metronome beat and a counter-beat from the back of the table, as a small motor spasmodically flips and wiggles a piece of wire with a beater striking a wooden plate. Above, small metallic objects jiggle and shimmer in a series of quick patterns.

During each performance van Gelder switches different combinations of the auto-constructions on and off, experimenting with different sonic layers. Contact microphones and transducers pickup the various sound events with their lo-fi, scratchy, tinny quality. Sounds are sent out through a loudspeaker sitting at the back of the table, with subtle feedback appearing every now and then as sounds are sent back across the table.

Similar to other instrument builders working with found objects (such as Ernie Althoff, Ross Manning), Pia van Gelder’s instrument values the sounds and textures intrinsic to the objects and materials that make up the automated instruments, combined with bias of the microphones and loudspeakers.