Funeral Choir
Interactive sound installation
2024 — ongoing

This piece was digitally modeled using CAD software and fabricated through a combination of CNC machining and hand-cut processes with wood. The connection ports were 3D printed in ABS to increase durability and withstand repeated physical interaction. Internally, the system relies on custom electronic circuits that close when a totem makes contact with the base. These signals are read by an Arduino and sent to an embedded Raspberry Pi, where the data is processed in Pure Data to generate and arrange the vocal sound output in real time.

(Close)

The project emerged as an evolution of You Are Here Now, which explored shared presence through participation. This project extends that investigation into questions of absence and death.

Funeral Choir is a participatory sound installation that invites people to compose a funeral song through simple physical gestures. The piece consists of three hand-built wooden totems and a shared base with three connection ports. Each totem represents a distinct vocal role within a choir, and the position in which it is placed determines which tonal variation it produces.

Rather than relying on screens or interfaces, composition happens through lifting, placing, and rearranging the objects. A single totem can be activated on its own, multiple totems can be combined, or all three can be played together, creating shifting choral structures that respond directly to the participant’s actions. Because each totem can occupy any of the three positions, the system allows for a wide range of vocal combinations that emerge through exploration.

The project draws from traditions of communal mourning and group singing, reframing the funeral choir as something intimate, tactile, and playful. By turning song-making into a physical act, Funeral Choir creates space to engage with the personal dimensions of death, inviting participants to reflect on their own mortality and create the song they might choose for their own funeral.

This project belongs to Playdead,
an ongoing thesis investigating play as a method for engaging with death.

Diego Guzman Villada