Sarah Winter
Twittering Keys, 2004
video installation, 3min. 15sec.
Winning piece of the BT Goldsmiths prize
for Digital Media 2004
Twittering Keys is a 3 min. 15 sec. video installation about the "execution" or the "suicide" of a piano,
depending on the point-of-view. A piano is projected life-size onto the space at the end of a long
and narrow corridor, similar to a shooting range, and "executed" to the sound of a classical piece of
music, while bouncing up and down hysterically. The mist that repeatedly covers the image at the
beginning and the end of the video suggests the increasing excitement and loss of control of the shooter.
The spectator has the impression of being inside the mind and fantasy of a perpetrator who seemingly
goes to pieces. Since the bullet wounds are linked to the notes, however, it remains unclear who
precisely is the victim and who the perpetrator, indeed whether it might not be the piano itself in an
act of self-destruction.