The Jazz and Roll Piano is a project produced in collaboration with the late Alwin Reamillo, a contemporary interdisciplinary artist from the Philippines. 

The Jazz and Roll piano began with one of Alwin’s spectacular work of art: the reconstruction of a piano into a unique and unorthodox design (a piano that can roll). We wanted the audience to be able to visually perceive the notes played by the beautiful piano and create an atmosphere that would resonate with the harmony of the melody. 

The project is an interactive installation that turns musical notes into visual perception. Twelve Lanna lanterns made of Seashells are connected to the twelve notes on the piano. When the audience plays the note on the piano, the connected lantern will glow, creating twinkling patterns that match the music.  

Alongside the lanterns, the audience can also see some robot dragonflies. The dragon flies are made from old piano keys and seashells. As prototypes, they were designed to be static. But Alwin wanted to breathe life into these inanimate machines.  

Like so, our team modified the dragonflies to be able to move their wings, bringing the venue alive. 

This project has been an exciting one for DDMY studio.  

Being able to give tangible properties to intangible objects, personifying inanimate objects with life and being able to give shape to these concepts with Alwin Reamillo has been a truly enriching experience. We hope that our audience can walk away from our exhibition with new and wider perspectives.