Stanley Piano
Digital Product, Experience Design
Meet Stanley. The interactive piano who takes song requests via Twitter and sometimes has a mind of his own. We reimagined a 19th century player piano, transforming it into an interactive device that connects people in a new way. Every Tweet and crowd interaction was personal. Stanley has feelings, made friends, has favorite songs, knows about pop culture and hates Coldplay.
Website
Stanley's performance could be viewed from anywhere in the world. So even if the audience member couldn't attend in person, they could watch the live stream and still request their song via Twitter.
How It Works
Good old MIDI files and some hacking. We used an old player piano, built to read music from long paper scrolls. We replaced his piano roll with hardware that enabled each key to be controlled electronically. A USB MIDI interface would send note data to Stanley's hardware, triggering each note to be played. All songs were created from scratch or modified existing MIDI files found online.
Moderation Tool
We built a custom tool called STANFORD to manage social communication (Twitter, live video feeds, crowd interactions, and song requests).
Capitol Hill Block Party
Seattle, WA
Stanley debuted outside the Digital Kitchen headquarters in Seattle during Capitol Hill Block Party. As a way of supporting the independent music scene, he played music from the indie artists that performed that weekend.
Chobani Sing for Hope
New York, NY
Every year Sing for Hope hosts a non-profit event designed to give the public access to the arts. 88 artist-designed pianos were placed throughout the five New York boroughs for everyone to enjoy. Chobani was the exclusive sponsor of the pianos. Stanley was invited to be the ambassador of the launch event at their flagship store in SoHo.
Twitter HQ
San Francisco, CA
Twitter invited Stanley to permanently settle into their San Francisco headquarters. It felt like coming home. Stanley can now play every day for employees and visitors alike.
Next project: Field Project