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Music

Dyskograf Brings Music Sequencing Back To The Punchcard Days

Appearing at Cultures Electroni[k], this piece invites audience members to create their own records with a marker.

In today’s world, music production lives on screens, with beats and melodies programmed on a grid, a virtual play bar sweeping past and playing sequences at will. But it is, in fact, possible to take this process back a couple of technological generations and recreate the charm of a more analog process, reminiscent of the punchcard era. Cut these cards into circles and drop them onto a turntable playing your circular sequences, and you’ve got Dyskograf, installed at Cultures Electroni[k].

A collaboration between Jesse Lucas, Erwan Raguenes, Yrotyo, and AVoka, Dyskograf is an installation that allows visitors to fill out their own musical sequence on a round disk using a marker. It starts off a bit like filling out a Scantron and ends with an original piece of music. Check out the video above, which demonstrates how you can go from a simple sequence with four equidistant marker points on the sheet to something slightly more complex. A camera placed above the turntable reads the marks as they rotate past, triggering various sounds depending on their placement.

Though slightly less practical than clicking boxes on a digital grid, Dyskograf presents a whole new way to keep music production “hands-on.”

@ImYourKid