optophonic piano

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossiné started building his optophonic piano in the 1915s.

The Optophonic Piano is an electronic optical instrument created by the Russian Futurist painter Vladimir Baranoff Rossiné.

In 1924 he had the first presentation of his optophonic piano during a performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow - a synaesthetic instrument that was capable of creating sounds and coloured lights, patterns and textures simultaneously.

The Optophonic Piano generated sounds and projected revolving patterns onto a wall or ceiling by directing a bright light through a series of revolving painted glass disks (painted by Vladimir Baranoff Rossiné himself), filters, mirrors and lenses.