Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers

In this way, [The User] appropriates a technology from an early-90s era office environment, replacing functional work with music. Fifteen dot matrix printers become musical instruments; their computers, connected together by a local area network, become the orchestra used to play them. To do this, the ‘local area network orchestra’ prints from text-file scores made up of letters of the alphabet and other ASCII symbols which become the textures, tones and rhythms of the music. The conductor of the orchestra is also a computer: the network server. The server conducts the orchestra via a serial network which allows precise control over each member of the orchestra.