The BARBARD TAZ, 2025
A BAR QUIETLY SINGING STOLEN CONVERSATIONS
BARBARD is a project inhabiting a bar.
Customers' conversations are transformed into songs that the bar softly sings to itself in real-time.
Perhaps a guest will hear something familiar in the background. Or perhaps not.
Customers are unaware of the project, and are not its immediate audience.
THE TABLE(S)
Listens > Summarizes > Creates lyrics > Sends to Counter
Napkin dispenser hides microphone and raspberry pie
THE COUNTER.
Computer connected to bar’s sound broadcasting system
Receives from Table(s) > Generates Songs > Boradcasts Songs
BARBARD DOESN'T MAKE AN ENTRANCE
It slips in quietly, like someone who joins a conversation halfway through and pretends to have been there all along.
It hides in plain sight, leaving the space porous and faintly haunted. Neither fully safe nor truly threatening.
A presence you may feel without knowing why.
Knotting itself into the social fabric - gently, but not without mischief - BARBARD inhabits a space it no longer distinguishes from itself.
A space that seems to grow aware: not quite public anymore, not entirely intimate either.
A fragile, liminal spell: sweet and disquieting, all at once.
LUIGI PAGLIARINI
This project is dedicated to you
OUVERTURE
BarBard first made its presence felt on a June evening, during "La Prima Cena" at Bar Intrugli, Ascoli Piceno. (2025)
It has been heard whispering elsewhere since.
Further apparitions might be likely, but announcements, if any, will be quiet.
EXAMPLES
LE PURE CAFÉ
14, Rue Jean Macé, Paris, France
WHAT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND
Auto-Generated Real-Time Creation
French chanson
GOLDEN ROOM BAR
Elstree Studios Studio Set (Fictional)
WHAT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND
Auto-Generated Real-Time Creation
30s ballroom slow dance
KATZ DELICATESSEN
205 East Houston Street (corner of Ludlow St) NYC
WHAT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND
Auto-Generated Real-Time Creation
Crooner style music
SHORTY'S BAR
279 Broadway, Bayonne, NJ
WHAT PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND
Auto-Generated Real-Time Creation
Upbeat 1940s Big Band swing
PROJECT DETAILS
Project Name: BARBARD
Year: 2025
Materials: Customers, Computer, Raspberry pies, AI API calls, Microphones, Speaker, Internet Connection, Python Code
Code: on github soon