Koka’s Drone Box series – ‘Koka’s Drone Box No. 3’

A puzzled visitor follows the melody to its source. Instead of four musicians in frocks, they find a delicate wooden box where four objects spin in a carefully choreographed manner. This is the ‘Drone Box’, the latest mixed-media work by Koka Nikoladze.

Using four stepper motors and low-quality drivers, Nikoladze creates an autonomous instrument capable of performing music. True to his commitment to found objects, he also incorporates elements like pinecones and paper cups. ‘Drone Box’ is a humorous take on the idea of a perfect quartet, and Nikoladze’s career-long exploration of creation and artistic practice is evident in this work. He focuses on the journey, where questioning and discovery flourish. The rigid, mathematical nature of music takes on an intuitive, almost shamanic quality. His creative process is driven by questions about the right number of elements and the issues around curating found objects.Seeking simplicity and balance, Nikoladze experiments with countless possibilities until he intuitively feels the piece is complete.

His experience as a violinist, composer, and programmer informs this work, and his avant-garde and New Music background resonates within ‘Drone Box”s wooden walls. Yet ultimately the structured order of formal music education dissolves into what he calls “chaos magic.” Intuition, fluidity, and creative freedom are central to his approach, which allows him to embrace mistakes and accidents as part of the process and core to the adventure.