What is a Player Piano?: The Media Archaeology of Torsten Lauschmann's Art Event

For more information regarding this event, please telephone Dr Stefanie Van de Peer on 02380596925 or email S.E.Van-De-Peer@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
Pofessor Ryan Bishop presents a talk on Torsten Lauschmann's Glitch Aesthetics at Winchester Discovery Centre
The mass-produced player piano offers a unique take on technology in the late 19th and early 20th century. A parlour novelty that reflected the larger mechanisation and automation of society, the player piano brought into the home the deskilling of workers, the punch card of looms that became the basis of computers, and the push-button satisfaction of entertainment and art.
A player piano – along with a snow machine, film projector and a mechanical monkey - also figures centrally in Torsten Lauschmann’s exhibition at the John Hansard Gallery. It provides a useful entry point for looking at Lauschmann’s serious, yet whimsical works and their wider historical, social and cultural contexts.
Ryan Bishop
is Professor of Global Arts and Politics at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. He publishes on aesthetics, technology, militarization, literature and urbanism.
Image: Torsten Lauschmann, The Coy Lover, 2011. AV Festival, Newcastle, 2012. Courtesy the artist and Dundee Contemporary Arts. Photo: Ruth Clark
Speaker information
Ryan Bishop,is Professor of Global Arts and Politics at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.