Using intersections between natural and mechanical systems, David Bowen establishes unique relationships in his sculptures and installations. With robotics, custom software, sensors, telepresence and data, he constructs devices and situations that are activated to interact with the physical and virtual worlds. The devices he develops often stand in the role of both observer and creator, offering limited and mechanical perspectives of dynamic situations and living systems. These devices and situations create a dissonance that leads to a variable and incalculable situation, generating unforeseeable results. The phenomenological productions are collaborations between natural form and function, the mechanism and the artist.

The installation cloud piano plays the keys of a piano based on movements and shapes of clouds. A camera pointed at the sky captures a video image of the clouds. The custom software uses the video in real time, linked to a robotic device that plays the respective keys on the piano. The system is activated to function as if the clouds were pressing the piano keys according to how they are moving in the sky and changing their shapes. The resulting sound is generated based on unique patterns of the notes created by the ethereal shapes that build, sweep, fluctuate and dissipate in the sky.