TANIA CANDIANI
CINCO VARIACIONES DE CIRCUNSTANCIAS FONICAS Y UNA PAUSA
Órgano [Organ] is a large-scale and site-specific interactive installation of a talking machine resembling a musical church organ. Originally installed at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda (LAA)–a former 17th-century church in downtown Mexico City–the device features two inputs: a musical keyboard and a typewriter. Each time users move to another line by striking the carriage-return lever on the typewriter, the words that have been typed are played back by means of a voice synthesizer. The musical keyboard, on the other hand, features a more complex system in which each key, music interval, and chord has been programmed to sound a specific syllable, comprising more than 2,000 syllables that make up the Spanish language. The latter programming has been translated into English, and more recently into Russian, for international exhibitions.