Hear the Story of 'Orpheus and Eurydice' as a Moving Sound Sculpture

Two copper plates, etched with the notes to Brazilian poet and musician Vinicius de Moraes' whirlwind “Valsa de Eurídice,” descend into utter chaos in artist João Costa's Adeus. Named for the Portuguese word for "goodbye," in the piece, “The metal plates are ‘scanned’ by an array of sensors that are attached to two linear actuators, one for each plate. When the system is triggered, both groups of sensors start moving along the plates in sync and play the song. Having reached the end of the plates, the sensors will move backwards and start again,” according to the artist

The result is purposely flawed, and because it is assembled by imperfect human hands, the whole thing devolves "into disorder." But “due to the system’s idiosyncrasies," writes the artist, "it will recover from that entropy and the sensors will eventually get in sync again, only to launch their descent into chaos [anew].”

That tendency towards disorder is built to reflect the story of Orpheus' descent into the underworld to save his wife, Eurydice, from Hades. Hear Adeus in action for yourself in the video below:

Adeus from João Costa on Vimeo.

Click here to visit João Costa's website.

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