“The Piano of Things” is a keyboard that controls and operates 61 different objects (toys, fans, engines, radios, electric shavers, dolls, computer parts) scattered throughout the space. Using the keyboard, visitors can play the objects and create their own music, as well as record and film it.
The very act of playing (which is an enjoyable process, especially when you do not need to know how to play!) engenders a sense of control. Mostly old and half broken, the objects are taken from different worlds: toys from the world of children, computer parts from the world of adults, old electrical appliances from the world of seniors, worlds that vanished alongside contemporary worlds, memories and disappointments alongside hopes and wishes. Connecting the keyboard to the various objects creates a network that anyone can join without hierarchies, like the Internet. Indeed, at the threshold of the “Internet of things” age, in which every object in the universe will be connected (and therefore controlled and monitored) by faceless identities and minds, it is worth looking carefully at the new spaces created to serve, but also to contain and sort us in the future.