Birds play freestyle guitar in new art display

By Louis Jagger

An exhibition in London’s Barbican centre will give zebra finches a different way to show off their musical talents.

French sound artist, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has set up electric guitars and other musical instruments in a glass walled aviary for a flock of finches. The instruments make a noise whenever the birds land on them or pluck at their strings.

A zebra finch. Picture credit: Daniel D. Baleckaitis

The art exhibition runs from 27 February to 23 May at the Barbican Centre. It is part of a series of contemporary installations in The Curve. This is a free gallery that brings some of the more adventurous styles of art to the public’s attention.

Originally from Australasia, zebra finches have been chosen to play the instruments because they enjoy socialising and have an expansive vocal range. They have even been known to use a twig for no other purpose than to play the guitar.

Finches, being songbirds, are fairly intelligent, and some species are able to use tools to get their food. Darwin’s Galapagos finches did so and under laboratory conditions, crows have been shown to do the same.

It will be interesting to see how the birds respond to the noise and whether they will work out that it is their movement that causes it.

Even if the finches are unaware of their musical exploits, it is worth going along and trying to decide precisely how the strange metallic paraphernalia will affect their everyday lives.

Perhaps when they start shaping plectrums out of bark, we ought to start worrying. Or at least, certain complacent pop-stars should.

This entry was posted on 22 February, 2010 at 20:26 and is filed under News & discovery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.