WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
INSTALLATION FOR AUTOMATED GUITAR
FOG FESTIVAL BASEL, CH
2024
Design, Construction & SoftwarE DEvelopment | Severin Dornier
In While My Guitar Gently Weeps, a suspended electric guitar is equipped with multiple linear actuators and motors. During the installation, the strings are excited by electromagnetic devices moved along the instrument by the robotic mechanism. These motors position the electromagnets at precise points along the strings, producing partial harmonics that result in a rich ambient sound texture projected through a conventional tube amplifier. Simultaneously, the magnetic fields generated by the motors are picked up by electromagnetic microphones and transmitted to multiple surrounding speakers as a second layer of sound. At specific motor positions, the complex interactions between the machine's magnetic field and the guitar strings produce a calm drone, while at others they lead to nearly uncontrollable noise.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a cautious metaphor for the advancement of automation across all areas of life. Although this process is often met with anxiety and skepticism in today's society, in this case the absolute precision of the machine is required to tame and organise an otherwise unstable system in order to achieve the sonic ideal through reproducible and repeatable states.
3D render of the first prototype featuring a 3-DOF robotic arm
Fotos & Video ©Erwin Fonseca