Make The Cybraphon Happy!

From the folks at Wired magazine comes this story of three UK-based artists and their musical creation. With a steampunk ethic they loaded up an antique wardrobe with a collection of musical instruments, programmed a MacBook to play them all and dubbed the thing the "Cybraphon". That itself would make this a mildly interesting story, but thankfully artists Kirby, Ziggy Campbell and Tommy Perman took the next step and hooked the Cybraphon into the Internet.

Not only did they do that, but they programmed it to constantly scan Twitter, MySpace and Facebook looking for references of itself - the more references the Cybraphon sees, the 'happier' it gets and its musical performance reacts accordingly; the fewer the references, the Cybraphon starts feeling unloved and its mood is reflected in its music. But even popularity gets to the Cybraphon eventually, and it will invariably slip into 'depression'. “We modeled it on an insecure, egotistical band,” Kirby explains. So in essence the Kirby, Ziggy and Tommy have created an automated teenager.

If you want to have a go at cheering the Cybraphon up you can follow it on Twitter or Facebook.