ENTORA / Projects / A stage for anyone
Exhibition / Retail
A stage for anyone
Two pianos in the atrium that respond to anyone: visitors sit down and play with no instructions and no staff.
- Client
- Family shopping centre
- Year
- 2019
- Location
- Atrium of a family shopping centre
- Cycle
- Concept, engineering, fabrication and installation
- Environment effect
- Holds attention · Focal point
The atrium of a family shopping centre. The client wanted an open focal point that would work with no instructions, no staff and no access barriers: anyone walks up, sits down and gets a result straight away.
The site set one condition: two different users at once, an adult and a child. The piece had to serve both equally.
Two pianos built into the atrium
We fabricated two pianos - one for adults and one for children - identical to real ones, and built them into the atrium. Inside each, a synthesiser drives the piece's sound and lighting system.
On the 10 columns of the atrium we installed 80 fixtures with DMX control, and we concealed the pianos' own lighting behind opal acrylic. A single keystroke sets off a response across the whole space around it.
Fabrication and installation
The system reads intent
The piece has two modes. If a person knows how to play, they play, and the light and music respond to them in real time. If they don't, any keystroke triggers one of 70+ classical melodies, and the lighting sweeps across the atrium in time.
There are no instructions. The system reads a person's intent and adjusts on its own, so both the musician and the child seeing an instrument for the first time sit down at the piano.
On site
Impact
Visitors sat down at the piano with no prompting
The piece worked from the first minute: visitors stopped, sat down, listened and played with no instructions and no staff. The two pianos became an active part of the atrium and a reason in themselves to stay. We completed fabrication in six weeks, and installation and commissioning in a single night.
- Pianos
- 2, one for adults and one for children
- Melodies
- 70+
- Lighting
- 80 LED fixtures with DMX control
- Installation
- 1 night
Do you need an interactive piece that works with no staff and no instructions?
We build a stage for the whole family that reads the visitor's intent on its own, installed in a single night without closing the centre.