Two heat guns stand on either side of a faded grand piano in the beginning of Laurin Döpfner's latest short film, Deconstucted Piano. Desconstruction, in this case, isn't an analysis of musical form or an artwork that highlights the tropes and cliches of its medium. It's the literal vaporization of the massive musical instrument, inch by inch, until there is no structure left—literal deconstruction.
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Shot in the form of a timelapse, Deconstucted Piano captures one frame of burning wood every six seconds, which creates the stunning impression of the piano almost melting into cinders in front of your eyes. The clincher in Döpfner's sizzling short is that one of the world's most celebrated classical piano pieces—Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"—plays in the background, adding a haunting beauty to the fiery on-screen carnage.Here are some scorching stills from the piano's red-hot deconstruction—don't get too close or you might catch an ember.
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