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Digital Vexations
2004
iPod digital music player with 19.3 hours audio piece.
Ed. 5 + 1 AP

A 10GB iPod featuring a full version of Erik Satie's 'Vexations'.

'Vexations' was written in 1893, a simple piano piece based around a theme and two variations that takes about one minute to play. The work gained notoriety because of a note that Satie scrawled on the manuscript: "To play this piece 840 times, it is necessary to prepare in advance in great silence and stillness."

The audio for my interpretation of the piece was created by sampling sounds of a mechanical music box. The piece completes the full 840 repetitions of Satie's theme which, transferred to the iPod, lasts over 19 hours, completely filling the player's 10GB capacity and thus rendering it redundant for further music storage.

Check here for info on 'Digital Vexations' in 'Do You Like Stuff?' at Swiss Institute, New York, Sept/Oct 2005.