While most musicians prefer to learn conventional instruments like guitars, drums, cello, piano or even the violin, an apparent music aficionado is going viral on Twitter for making music by scanning barcodes.
A video, which has been shared on micro blogging site Twitter, shows a man scanning a huge range of barcodes printed on a canvas in order to achieve the perfect sound. The 47-seconds long video clip has been viewed nearly two million times and has been retweeted over 27 thousand times.
《バーコーダー》バーコードリーダーのスキャン信号をレジではなく、スピーカーに直接接続することで音を鳴らす。いま渋谷で巨大レシート版、演奏できます┃┃┃┃_ρﾞ#electronicosfantasticos pic.twitter.com/tc5TTEhPMT— Ei Wada │ 和田永 📡 (@crab_feet) January 22, 2020
According to a report published in the Verge, the artist has been identified as Ei Wada, who happens to be a Japanese musicians.
Ei is famous for making musical instruments out of old electronics. Further, the artist has participated in an orchestral project using 20 reel-to-reel tape recorders, and has created art, music, and tech group called Electronicos Fantasticos. This group has shared various videos under the banner of barcode project on YouTube.
As per the report, Wada asserts that the barcode scanners are modified and generate sounds by connecting scanned signals directly to the audio terminal. The boxes that can be seen in the video include barcodes along with things like starbursts and low-contrast patterns.
