Generative score for John Menick’s new film & installation, Telharmonium.
Commissioned by Matt Gallery for Artissima, Turin, the project looks at the automation of culture through one of the first electronic instruments, the Telharmonium. The music provides a generative score controlled live by data from a predictive economic model. Telharmonium is edited in real time by software developed by Menick.
Built in the early 1900s, the Telharmonium was a two-hundred-ton electronic synthesizer that could imitate many instruments. Incredibly it played its music exclusively over telephone lines to paying subscribers such as hotels and restaurants. One player could do the work of entire orchestras and could, in theory, entertain thousands. As with the player piano and phonograph, the Telharmonium was an early example of a new technology that threatened to replace creative labor, much like AI does today.The film combines computer simulations with thermal, night vision, drone, and 4K footage, along with CGI renderings of the now-lost musical instrument.
Alongside, Menick shows paintings and drawings made with copper foil, postcards, and vintage telephone receivers. Together the works reflect on the Telharmonium’s forgotten legacy and today’s unease about an AI-driven future.
