Part performance, part participatory sound experience, “Left to Their Own Devices” features a series of interactive musical mechanisms that invite and respond to audience interaction. Wander the Museum at your own pace, in your own path, and engage with the devices and performers.

The Devices
Tintinnalogia – a mechanical carillon – is inspired by the British tradition of change ringing in which the permutations of eight bells are exhaustively rung out. The chaotic-sounding results are often heard in wedding bells.

Extant uses the sextant the artist’s grandfather used as he sailed to Tahiti. The sextant, a classic navigation tool, is based on imprecise science, relying on where you thought you once were to predict your current position. Extant uses the ancient tool and modern sensors and surround sound to create an immersive installation about celestial navigation amidst rising tides.

Heterodyne is inspired by the inventor Leon Theramin’s dance platform called the Terpsitone, and his 1936 visit to Bennington College. Heterodyne translates movement into sound, using one soundwave to “read” another – technology used in early spy devices and in the theremin, a contactless electronic musical instrument named for its inventor.

These are just some of the unique and interactive devices that will be part of this engaging musical experience.

Nicholas Brooke creates music across disciplines, from collages of recordings with live theater, to home-built instrumentariums inspired by gamelan. Brooke’s works have been featured across the U.S. and Europe, at Mass MoCA, HERE, Merkin Hall, Baryshnikov Arts Center, the MATA Series, and the Spoleto Festival, and have been performed by the Bang-on-a-Can All-Stars, Talujon, Speculum Musicae, Orchestra 2001, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Nash Ensemble of London, and Sekar Anu. He has received Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation awards, and multiple residencies including Djerassi, MacDowell, Bogliasco, and Bellagio. Originally a clarinettist, he is also an avid instrument builder, and researcher of early musical automata. During a two-year fellowship to Central Java, he studied gamelan and collaborated on musical projects with Javanese composers, dancers, and visual artists. He holds degrees in music composition and philosophy from Oberlin, and a Ph.D from Princeton. He teaches at Bennington College.

Music at the Museum programs are presented at no charge, thanks to our generous sponsors,
Alison Nowak and Robert Cane