Many of Boston’s public spaces, the Rose Kennedy Greenway to name one, have become permanent exhibits for the city’s most engaging pieces of civic innovation. From solar powered cell phone charging stations to next-generation displays of public art, the creativity and imagination that thrives within these green urban asylums has no bounds. Though, admittedly, they could stand to become a little more melodious.

Even the Greenway isn’t immune to the sounds of horns blaring by the hand of road raging, foul-mouthed Bostonians. So a perhaps a complement to the Play Me, I’m Yours public use pianos ought to be considered, one that tickles the ivories without the use of human fingers.

According to Fast.Co Design, a technological piano crafted in France, aptly dubbed Cloud Piano, to be installed at L’assaut de la Menuiserie in Saint-Etienne plays itself by interpreting the the movement of the clouds. That’s right, I’m talking a cloud-powered piano.

The piano is the brainchild of David Bowen, who Fast.Co Design notes is an artist with an affinity for melding the intricate fabric of nature with his art medium of choice.

Writes Fast.Co, “the system Bowen built actually slides the clouds’ shapes straight over a keyboard as if they are fingers, so the clouds are actually playing the piano in a very literal sense–well, as literal of a sense as possible.”

Having watched the video of the piano I have to admit that while the haphazard (and metaphorical) striking of each chord leaves some to be desired, the simple fact that it’s fueled by gloomy clouds and plays without the use of human hands makes the piano eerily enchanting.

Think there’s room for this kind of natural instrument in Boston’s beautiful parks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Image via David Bowen