A ghostly ship sails through the Bay of Sapri in Southern Italy, just translucent enough for onlookers to doubt whether they’re imagining it, its silhouette obscured by a jumble of rectilinear columns. The latest wire mesh masterwork by artist Edoardo Tresoldi, ‘Locus’ is a collaboration with Italian musician IOSONOUNCANE, bringing sculpture and music together in a public performance enjoyed by a crowd gathered on the nearby shore.

The musician debuted his unreleased composition during the installation, presented as part of Sapri’s Derive Festival, an experimental art, music and poetry project curated by Antonio Oriente. The combination of the ship’s visuals, the lighting, the music and the setting truly made it a one-of-a-kind experience, with the sounds amplified by the water.

“Sapri Bay become sone of the characterizing elements of the event, acquiring a temporal and performative dimension,” states the Derive website (translated from Italian. “Collaboration blends different contemporary languages, redefining the relationship between audience and artist in a kind of hic et nunc [here and now] unrepeatable.”

Edoardo Tresoldi is known for his eerily beautiful wire compositions, which are typically architectural in nature, recreating entire classical and historic structures like echoes of churches that fell into ruins centuries ago and palatial interior installations augmented by flying birds.

The ocean already makes music of its own, but in one Croatian town, its natural sounds are enhanced with the help of an interactive jetty-turned-instrument called ‘Sea Organ.’ Created by architect Nikola Basic in collaboration with engineers, craftspeople and a musical professor who tuned all of the pipes, the 230-foot installation on the coast of Zadar emits a constantly-changing concert of harmonic sounds with the flow of wind and water.

A system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity are disguised beneath a set of marble steps leading straight into the Adriatic Sea. The channels connect to 35 organ pipes, and each set of steps containing five pipes is tuned to a different musical chord. As waves and the wind push air into the pipes, they create a haunting chorus of sound. The rougher the sea, the louder and faster the music.

The Zadar-Morske Orgulje, as it’s known locally, is also topped with an interactive display of LED lights that seem timed to show the movement of the water under the marble. This 22-meter-diameter, disc-shaped solar-powered installation called ‘Sun Salutation,’ also created by Basic, only serves to make the music of the sea even more magical.

Images via Flickr Creative Commons: linssimato, J We, Suzanne Hamilton, EyeofJ

What will become of all that humans have created when we’re no longer on the planet to preserve it? This project by artist Evan Holm is both a nod to the grief that the mere thought of losing so much art, architecture, music and other culturally significant creations can incite, and hope for a new beginning. ‘Submerged Turntables’ play music perfectly even when placed underwater, spinning in a black pool.

Watching the record swirl in the water is an eerie sight, powerfully evoking visuals of the monster floods we’ve watched wipe out human settlements in epic disaster movies as well as in real life. The knob to control the record player is built into a branch that hangs over the pool. The video below shows the process of setting up the installation.

“There will be a time when all tracings of human culture will dissolve back into the soil under the slow crush of the unfolding universe,” says Holm. “The pool, black and depthless, represents loss, represents mystery and represents the collective subconscious of the human race. By placing these records underneath the dark and obscure surface of the pool, I am enacting a small moment of remorse towards this loss.”

“In the end however this is an optimistic sculpture, for just after that moment of submergence; tone, melody and ultimately song is pulled back out of the pool, past the veil of the subconscious, out from under the crush of time, and back into a living and breathing realm. When I pe

From lively street festivals to the blaring stereos of passing cars, music is a mainstay in urban environments. This series of musical-themed street art, including graffiti by the likes of MTO and fun interactive projects, celebrate that connection. Check out stairs and crosswalks painted to look like pianos, painted stereos that you can play with your iPhone and house-sized art installations with musical instruments built into the walls.

Play Me, I’m Yours

(image via: simonerene)

A 2010 installation in New York City saw 60 pianos placed in public locations, emblazoned with the words ‘Play Me,  I’m Yours’. The two-week city-wide program kicked off at the Make Music New York festival with the pianos decorated by local artists, students and volunteers. The project gave everyone from professional pianists to people who have never touched keys before a chance to play in public.

Piano Stairs

(image via: we heart it, pianostair.com)

Staircases just beg to be transformed into the keys of a piano. Isn’t it amazing how just a little bit of black and white paint can make a street scene so much more lively?

QRadio: Interactive Stereo

(image via: wonderfully lost)

This awesome public art project by the Berlin-based SWEZA enables you to use a smartphone as a cassette tape to make a painted boom box play music. Interactive, imaginative and fun.

Sonic Graffiti

(image via: create digital music)

Similarly high-tech, audio graffiti can involve placing magnetic tape on walls, using spray cans to ‘paint’ and ‘play’ sound. Thanks to a tutorial at Instructables, you can even create your own sonic graffiti to transmit and play audio messages to other people in public restrooms. Just what you’ve always wanted.

Musical Notes

(images via: fotopedia)

Sweet and simple, a pair of musical notes on a blank white wall send a message without making a sound.

Piano Steps

(images via: wpt9)

Piano stairs on a smaller scale, this installation takes advantage of the shape of white tiles on a stoop with just a few pieces of black tape.

Iconic musicians by MTO

(images via: this blog rules)

Talented street artist MTO brings musical legends alive on brick walls and other urban surfaces in a series that includes Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and James Brown.

Dithyrambalina in New Orleans

(images via: the l magazine)

Bringing a little magic to the streets of New Orleans, ‘Dithyrambalina’ is a project orchestrated by Brooklyn-based street artist Swoon, otherwise known as Callie Curry. Dithyrambalina is a house-sized musical instrument inspired by the architecture of Creole cottages in the Bywater neighborhood. Local musicians and artists created instruments that were built in to the shack’s walls, floors and ceilings for a temporary public art installation.

Piano Wall in Cairo

(images via: your heart’s on the left)

Covering an explosion of a positive sort on the streets of Cairo – in the form of art – blogger Your Heart’s on the Left notes the optimistic message conveyed by this mural, a piano painted on a bullet-scarred wall. “This mural recently appeared in Cairo a few blocks away from Tahrir Square. On a wall scarred by street fights–punctured with bullet holes and charred by molatov cocktails–a piano has emerged.”

Le Silence, Made of Musical Notes

(images via: my modern met)

The negative space between musical notes fittingly spells out ‘Le Silence’ in this creative mural by Milan-based street artist Eme, located in Strasbourg, France.

Chopin Crossing

(images via: flourish creative)

Street crossings in Warsaw, Poland were transformed into stretches of piano keys in celebration of Chopin’s 200th birthday in 2011, a subtle yet powerful manipulation of the urban landscape.

Turntables by MTO

(image via: design you trust)

Garage doors become twin turntables seen from above in this perspective-shifting piece by street artist MTO.

Free Air Guitars!

(image via: neatorama)

In a hilarious bit of guerilla marketing, radio station Rock 96.3 in Glasgow, Scotland set up an empty guitar rack with a sign above it reading ‘Free Air Guitar – Please Take One.’