Phantom Fingerings

by Phyllis Chen and Rob Dietz

At the Museum of the Moving Image for the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival (2015)
hand-painted scroll on rice paper

Phantom Fingerings uses the Piano Lodeon (robot player toy piano) to play the custom-made music scroll. The scroll (painted and custom cut by Phyllis) is the musical score for the piece; It has perforations in the paper to allow tones from the robot toy piano to sound. Ghostly miniature hands float across the keyboard (Phyllis’ hands) as the robot toy piano plays its mysterious music.

Still image from video (by Rob Dietz)