MIT Media Lab's Andante: Holograms Play Piano with Human Pianists

The Tangible Media Group at MIT Media Lab, led by Professor Hiroshi Ishii, has developed Andante, a musical-technological experiment where luminous holograms of little people and animals dance across a piano keyboard, producing scales and melodies either alone or in duet with a human pianist. The project stems from a pedagogical vision of music as an expressive tool, aiming to promote a full-body sonic experience. The symbolic movement chosen is walking, one of the body's natural rhythms. The software is also designed as a didactic tool for learning piano in a fun way. Ishii notes that the piano keyboard allows a single person to play complex music, but learning often requires a cognitive and symbolic approach that overrides the physical and emotional. Pianists, however, learn using their whole body and expressiveness. The Tangible Media Group focuses on connecting the world of atoms with the immaterial world of bits, visualizing data flows through moving physical forms.