Crank Dat Giant Music Box!

The Music Construction Machine is a large, generative music box, which people can operate using a hand crank. Rotating the crank moves various mechanisms inside, producing ever-changing melodies and rhythmic patterns with an electric guitar, a keyboard, and a drum set.

The project, which is the brainchild of Niklas Roy, is housed inside a transparent glass case, enabling onlookers to witness its inner workings as it performs. The installation is currently on display at the Goethe-Institut Pop Up Pavillion in Wroclaw, Poland.

Although the hardware — comprised mostly of ropes, pulleys, springs and weights — determines which tones are played, visitors dictate the tunes depending on how fast they crank and where they interrupt the flow of music. An algorithm is responsible for generating the music itself.

Unlike more conventional music boxes that repeat the same melody over and over, Roy’s Music Construction Machine is designed to constantly create different beats and tones.

Although the mechanisms follow a simple inherent logic, which determines the sequence of tones that will be played, the overall behavior of the system is so complex that the sequence appears to be unpredictable for a listener. The result is a melody which is sometimes harmonic, sometimes not, but it definitely has a lot of variation.