Named after the most expensive violin in the world, the Stradivarious concept was conceived to gauge how music can have a role in influencing vehicle design.
The project started with Tony Lien — a classically trained violinist who has been playing since the age of seven — using cameras to capture the movement of the bow as he played ‘Praeludium and Allegro’ by composer Fritz Kreisler. The movement was then translated into the first sketches.
“I visualized my pen as the bow of a violin and documented each movement as the music progressed,” says Lien. “During the composition it was important for me to focus on the passion of the piece, to do this I had to go into a deep state of mind.”
Lien then looked at the position of the hand while playing this dynamic piece of music, which he cast in plaster.
“As the bow movement inspired the first stage of the design, the second stage was to focus on the left hand, which represent the pitch and precision,” shares Lien. “Using the plaster technique helped me to sculpt the shape and record down the emotion while playing the violin. I used the key form as the main inspiration, then using watercolor, which represents the tone of the piece.”
The combination of the two created the basic form for his final project, ultimately using the study of the bow movement and finger pressure to reconstruct key sketches using the combination of wires and plasters.
“The wires represent the movements of the bow, while the plaster represents the pressure formed through the fingers of the violist. The whole idea is to emphasize the elegance and aesthetics of a violin performance,” says Lien.
Lien concedes that he made a mistake in the first study as he misunderstood the key movement to be the car. “The key movement is the music itself,” he says, which he used as a reference in the perspective and handcrafting processes to emphasize the emotion of playing the piece on the violin.
