Beat Machine series – ‘Beat Machine 7’

‘Beat Machine 7’ is an electro-mechanical sound sculpture which generates new rhythms every time it is turned on. Side switches enable users to de-activate different music-making parts, while coding developed by the artist ensures that no two pieces generated are ever the same. If connected to a computer, ‘Beat Machine 7’ becomes a musical instrument controllable by software, allowing for performance uses of the artwork itself.

Found materials are the starting point for Nikoladze’s ‘Beat Machine’ series, started in 2016, and for ‘Beat Machine 7’, the artist spent six months searching to achieve the ideal combination of objects and their sounds. A holder coil for a soldering iron, fibreglass inherited from a friend, brass rods salvaged from abandoned furniture, a DC motor and numerous tiny springs all form part of this artwork.

Autonomous machine, instrument and sophisticated found-object sculpture, ‘Beat Machine 7’ brings together many of Nikoladze’s interests, including the interplay of technology and composition, approaches to humanising beats, or the musical potential of everyday objects. To the artist, however, the ‘Beat Machines are simply’ “a constant process of experimentation,” each the result of a personal journey to craft chaos into order and sound.