A song about outdated tech played on outdated tech

Film-maker James Houston rigged together a bunch of old gadgets to play a song by musician Julian Corrie farewelling the tech of yesteryear.

While our gadgets are getting better all the time (faster, better storage, smaller form factors, more functions), our beloved old gadgets, of which we were so proud, with which we spent so many hours, languish in basements and garages and attics — gone, yet never forgotten.

If you have a bit of electrical know-how, though, you can give them a new lease on life, as Glasgow-based artist and film-maker James Houston did. He rigged together a Sega Mega Drive (1988), a Commodore 64 (1982) and a bunch of old floppy and hard drives to play music, controlled live via MIDI.

The song, written and performed by electronic musician Julian Corrie, is called "Polybius" — named for an 1981 arcade tube shooter of urban legend that was said to send its players insane.

Corrie's song, however, is not about insanity so much as a sweet song about our bittersweet relationship with our gadgets — how eventually we must move on. According to Houston, it's "a last curtain call in a nostalgic farewell to forgotten friends". Try listening to it while thinking of your favourite childhood piece of tech.

Via thecreatorsproject.vice.com