‘Music of the Sails’ was an ambitious 50th anniversary digital artwork that reimagined the sounds of the House - and was live-streamed for 744 hours throughout October 2023. This film showcases one hour of the work, and was captured using the live data feeds in November 2023.

As we celebrated our 50th year, we dreamt about the future, and contemplated the ways in which technology will impact on creativity and performance. In ‘Music of the Sails’, we flipped the relationship between the building and the art that inhabits its walls. What if the House itself could stand in the spotlight on stage? What would it sound like? What would it sing to us?  

A generative, audio-visual artwork made from data, artificial intelligence and field recordings, including the sounds of the Concert Hall’s grand organ, ‘Music of the Sails’ augmented the sonic secrets of the building in a way that we’ve never heard before.  

The ground-breaking project was a creative collaboration between the Opera House, the University of New South Wales' Interactive Media Lab and music technologists Uncanny Valley. It was a captivating fusion of architecture, generative music techniques and cutting-edge artificial intelligence methods, which together revealed the Opera House as a living and dynamic work of art in action. 

For credits and more information head to sydneyoperahouse.com/birthday-festival/music-sails