The song was You Drive Me Crazy by Shakin’ Stevens that brought a couple together 18 years ago and they played it time and again at a CD-driven jukebox. It became “their” song. But what can be done to keep the magic of the song alive?

On the other end of the spectrum are goodbyes, which are never easy, something all of us understand very well as the pandemic continues to leave us in a sinking place in the sand as we remember loved ones we lost, cherishing the final messages that were exchanged, like “We will talk soon.”

Then there are the moments when we break out into songs, become a part of a universal musical instrument like the piano.

Disconnected it may seem but surreal questions and moments come together at Wonderspaces, which The Telegraph had an opportunity to visit in Philadelphia. Experiential art installations are not new but what if a space was built where the initial attraction is Instagram-worthy and once you start moving from one room to another, deeper meanings come to the surface.

‘Our Top 100’ by Jody Servon.

Memories via Spotify

Jody Servon has a project that appears simple but there are wheels within wheels. There is a big green board and on the table are forms that ask for the song that’s special to you and the memory attached to it. Write it down and pin it to the green board. It soon will become a part of “Our Top 100” community-built Spotify playlist consisting of songs and memories about songs shared by participants in specific cities and towns. It is a great example of art and technology coming together.

Humans as a musical instrument

Matthew Matthew wanted to turn human beings on city streets into a playable musical instrument. His project, ‘On A Human Scale’, brought him face to face with hundreds of people in New York City. He filmed them and asked each of them to sing. From their performances comprising different notes, he selected one individual to represent a single note on the scale.

All these are connected to a piano console which visitors to Wonderspaces can play. And if the piano is played well, there is perfect harmony. Imagine all the people living in harmony, like John Lennon once said.

‘The Last Word’, a project by the public art collaborative Illegal Art

Those important words

Things are often left unsaid, which we realised more than ever before during the pandemic. There are always missed opportunities to get in the last word. What if you had a chance to say those last few words, what would they be? Leaving technology behind is ‘The Last Word’, a project by the public art collaborative Illegal Art.

Hundreds of tightly rolled pieces of paper, dyed red on one end and left untouched on the other are placed in honeycomb chambers. Visitors to Wonderspaces can write on a piece of paper and make it a part of the honeycomb or take out a roll and read what could have been those last words.

‘Blooms’ by John Edmark

Mathematical wonders

John Edmark, using 3D technology, has “printed” four sculptures for his series Blooms. The sculptures by the artist-mathematician defies definition and one can end up staring at them for hours, trying to understand what he refers to as “instruments that amplify our awareness of the sometimes tenuous relationship between facts and perception”. The patterns respond to the mathematical phenomenon called Fibonacci sequence, which also inspired the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, ‘The Vitruvian Man’. The use of the golden ratio makes us see movement in Edmark’s sculptures. The rotation speed of each sculpture synchronises with the strobe light that emits a flash every 137.5 degrees.