Symphony orchestras are usually associated with grandiose musical ensembles featuring brass, woodwind, percussion, and string instruments playing powerful music directed by a revered conductor. Rarely, if ever, are they composed of domestic household electrical products. Not so this orchestra currently exhibiting at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Germany from composer Michael Petermann aka White Noise. Called Blödes Orchester, which translates as “dumb” or “stupid,” it took the composer over eight years of preparatory work and features 200 historical appliances—vacuum cleaners, blenders, washing machines, hair dryers, fans, bins—in a strange but tuneful concert performance.The various products become the various strands of the orchestra with the whirring and whizzing of the machinery creating an industrial rhythm that’s surprisingly pleasant to listen to, a result of Petermann’s dedication and skill. The music combined with the retro-looking objects becomes a kinetic sound installation where objects usually associated with quite ordinary practical tasks get re-purposed into extraordinary instruments—far from stupid it’s incredibly clever and inventive.[via Today and Tomorrow]