Piano as Image Media by Toshio Iwai
The user operates a trackball to draw lighted dots on a grid. The flashing dots move, and as soon as they come close to the piano they accelerate and strike a key. With the sound of the piano, a three-dimensional figure pops out of the keyboard. The audience-drawn shapes play the actual piano. The sound then generates moving colors and figures. He later collaborated with pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto for the "Music Plays Images x Images Play Music", a concert that uses the system of Iwai's piano piece and visualizes a musical performance by Sakamoto in real time.
As Sakamoto plays a small keyboard, the piano starts to play. A faint light gradually emanates from the piano. At a certain point, Sakamoto stops playing. However, the last musical phrase repeats itself automatically, slowly fading out. When Sakamoto plays the piano directly. The light-images that visually represent each note of the musical piece begin to rise from within the piano. The images capture not only the timing of the notes, but every aspect of the music, including the length of the notes and their loudness. Later on the dots of light fall on a second piano, the piano begins to play. The dots of light then rebound to their original position, striking the keyboard at fixed intervals. Depending on where the dots of light are placed, the pitch of the notes and the patterns of repetition change.
