MIT Piano Drop.
Or more accurately, The Baker House Piano Drop, was first preformed in 1972. It involved dropping an entire piano from the roof of Baker House in commemoration of the spring term deadline for dropping classes.
The first drop was filmed by Bill Short, who made a short film of the event:
“I used B&W because I could process the film in my dorm room quickly and cost-effectively and see the results right away. I shot the film silent. Synchronized sound equipment was not within the budget of a typical college student in those days. Jean Ward did a bunch of audio interviews during the event, so I used that audio. I got Kevin Struhl, who lived in the room next-door, to improvise some piano music.” (more over at MIT81)
The event was held every now and again after 1972, and every year since 2006.
The image was also used as the cover of Tim Heckers album ‘Ravedeath 1972’ (2011). Here’s an interview with his thoughts on the image.
“In my mind, there’s some connection between the computerized engineering that led to the codification of MP3s and music’s denigration as an object and thus a viable means of economic survival. The connection is super vague but it’s interesting to think about.”
