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Have you ever heard of pigeons creating musical beats? One artist has discovered a way to make this fantastical idea a reality. The artist Amédæe begins with a jar of birdseed and a metal dish wired for sound. The dish is connected to sensors and a speaker. As Amédæe disperses the food, the kernels create a rush of clinking sounds. A flock of pigeons quickly descends on the tray, picking and pecking, creating a symphony from their movement. The result is inexplicably tied to the birds, but Amédæe has manipulated the output so that it doesn’t sound like pigeons at all. The audio is grand yet unpredictable, like the sounds are echoing in a large, empty room.
Amédæe’s inter-species musical collaboration began in early 2026. The French artist designs devices that “interact with reality,” and at the same time, is interested in the rock pigeon. This common bird has been unfairly maligned, despite its importance in history; for example, during World War II, parachuting pigeons carried messages to the French resistance. “[The pigeon] is now discredited and considered a pest and a carrier of disease,” he told Crack Magazine. “However, this is not the case: this sensitive and social species appears ‘dirty’ mainly because of our hostile urban environments.”
“I found all of this very compelling and felt there was something to explore with these semi-wild birds,” he continued, “I wanted to make interactive devices that create semi-random sound patterns with living beings, without confining them.”
The pigeons appear unbothered as they engulf the feed left by Amédæe. They want to chow down. This nonchalance has a benefit; by being unwitting collaborators in the performance piece, they demonstrate our symbiotic relationship. It’s another reason to embrace them rather than turn away from them.
Scroll down to watch Amédæe make music with pigeons.
The artist Amédæe has an unlikely collaborator: pigeons.
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He spreads birdseed on a metal dish wired for sound. As the birds clamor for food, they create sounds you might hear sampled on an EDM track.
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