music robot
Articles about music robot:
David Byrne is keeping busy.
While he just opened his audio installation Playing the Building, he’s working on a new project, involving animatronic robots.
Byrne explains:
About a year ago, I was approached by some Spanish curators to participate in a show scheduled to open at the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid at the end of this month. I was told the show would be called “Machines and Souls: Digital Art,” so I suggested I work with David Hanson (of Hanson Robotics) to make a quasi-realistic singing robot. Animatronics date at least as far back as Disney’s Lincoln robot delivering part of the Gettysburg address, although Abraham’s delivery all but ignored any emotional fervor.
Having seen some of Hanson’s work at Wired Magazine’s Nextfest—and having heard about it for years before that—I thought it might be time to attempt a collaboration. I immediately thought the robot should perform an action with a weird emotional resonance, like singing. An impassioned speech, laughter, or tears, would have worked just as well, but I had an inkling I could write a short passionate song (in both English and Spanish) for Julio the robot to croon.
Byrne’s interested in exploring the strange effect of the almost-real robot.
“It’s still a work in progress—the movements will be more “natural,” as will his hair,” adds Byrne. “But this definitely demonstrates the creepiness factor at work!”
Michael Una will conduct a MIDI robotic percussion workshop on Friday, May 2nd at Bent Festival Minneapolis.
Participants will receive free MSA-R kits donated by Highly Liquid. The workshop is free and open to all on a first-come, first-served basis.
This is pretty insane – a robot that moves around, collects samples and then lays down funky beats.
The robot first plays on the object it finds (or is forced to find by the angry cameraman), plays a small beat, and records the beat it plays on it. Then this recorded beat is played again, and it starts to play on the object (and belt tracks and everything else it has), while also playing the sampled beat.
The robot:
- Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it
- Finds something “worth playing on” (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto)
- Snakes into place
- Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a “good sound”
- Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample
Want a robo-drummer at your next gig?
via LetsMakeRobots
