AUTOPSIES RESEARCH GROUP

  • Home
  • Events
  • Autopsies Blog
  • OBITUARIES
  • Projects
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • CONFERENCE CALLS
  • Links
  • People
  • Contact
  • Site map

The Longplayer project

15/1/2010

0 Comments

 
The new year marked the 10th anniversary of the Longplayer project, a musical composition that is intended to play for 1000 years. A mind boggling thought.

So far so good, but the developers of the project are concerned about the long term continuation of the piece of never repeating music. Although a computer is currently performing Longplayer, the project developers are aware present day technology will one day be obsolete. For this reason, they are seeking a non-technological and nondigital way of ensuring the survival of the composition for the next 990 years. The developers are experimenting with alternative performance methods from mechanical, non-electrical devices to human performance.

In its section of 'Survival Strategies', the Longplayer project website asks, 'How does one keep a piece of music playing across generations? How does one prepare for its technological adaptability, knowing how few technologies have remained viable over the last millenium?'

Beyond suggesting a number of mechanical and technological possibilities, the developers believe Longplayer will only survive if people are interested in the survival of this ambitious scheme, akin to launching a probe deep into space on an unknown journey. With it being nearly impossible to predict how technology will change within even the next ten years, live human performance may be the only way of guaranteeing the continuation of Longplayer through the millennium. The first live performance of Longplayer was held in London's Roundhouse in September 2009.

Jacob Paskins
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    autopsies blog

    This is where we share what we’ve seen, heard, experienced
    or thought about dead objects
     for everyone to comment on.

    Tweets by @autopsiesgroup

    Archives

    September 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009

    Categories

    All
    Architecture
    Archives
    Asbestos
    Benjamin
    Bill Brown
    Books
    Car
    Cinema
    Collection
    Comics
    Computers
    Conferences
    Dickens
    Drawings
    Exhibition
    Film
    Film Noir
    Found Footage
    Godard
    Hair Dryer
    Internet
    Jazz
    Kitsch
    Landlords
    Launderette
    Lead Paint
    Lead Poisoning
    Library
    Longplayer Project
    Lost Film
    Maps
    Medicine
    Memex
    Metro
    Motel
    Museums
    Music
    New Orleans
    Nostalgia
    Object Retrieval
    Object Retrieval Project
    Objects
    Obsolescence
    Patina
    Photography
    Photomaton
    Pica
    Radio
    Routemaster Bus
    Streetcar
    Surveillance
    Theatre
    Things
    Thing Theory
    Toys
    Transport
    Ucl
    Website

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.