PREKÄROPHASIA is a fantastic music machine. She tells the story of “Prekärotopia”, of Poupée, Speaker and Trickster and the utopian attempt to produce change together. The mobile, mechanical sculpture is an extension of the previous collaborative projects by Beate Engl, Leonie Felle and Franka Kaßner.
In PREKÄROPHASIA, a historical mechanical orchestrion from the 1900s is transformed into an analog-digital music sculpture. The sculptural, talking and sounding automaton appears nostalgic and futuristic at the same time. The attraction of the analog and the poetry of the rotating roller mechanism becomes the digital-analog interface of a narrative humanoid without past or future.

Beate Engl, Leonie Felle and Franka Kaßner
Roller orchestrion with gear, self-playing, historical music automaton
Manufacturer: PASQUALE, reworked by MAISON ERNEST DE MASCIO ca. 1910
Origin and time: Belgium, ca. 1890
Original instrumentation: piano strings with striking hammer, dulcimer strings with
wooden hammer, drum with cymbal, snare drum, glockenspiel
Sound body: wood
Roller: Wood, pin nails
Dimensions: 157 cm x 156 cm x 75 cm
More information about the project:
➔ Dokumentation_PREKÄROPHASIA_Beate Engl, Leonie Felle, Franka Kaßner
The project was supported by “Verbindungslinien” (BBK Bayern) and funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art.