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What are the characteristics that define the essence of LEMUR musical compositions? ERIC SINGER It is hard to say that there is an essence to a LEMUR musical composition. We have had several composers work with the instruments, and each has taken a radically different approach. The first work, by Joshua Fried, was a "traditionally" composed work (that is, played back on a robot from a composed score). The second work, by Mari Kimura, was an interactive work, where the robot's response is generated in real-time by "listening" to what the violinist is playing. The third work, by Lee Ranaldo, was created algorithmically by translating visual patterns in a picture into musical patterns. KEVIN LARKE Each of the composers I have worked with has taken a very different approach to Guitarbot. Mari Kimura wrote a program which tracks her acoustic violin and generates commands to the instrument. In effect, she was having a conversation with her program and GuitarBot acts as its mouth. In this case the instrument was tuned and played very much in the style of a traditional electric guitar. Lee Ranaldo took a completely different approach. He treated the instrument as four separate fret-less mono-chords. His piece works by slowly varying the mechanical 'finger' position on each string and continuously picking - sometimes at very high speeds. The resulting sound could be compared to a waterfall of drones as the string harmonics acoustically interact. Joshua Fried's pieces for GuitarBot are pre-composed on MIDI sequencers. His compositions work with the idiomatic nuances of the instrument. He uses techniques like carefully timed plucks and slides, or very quick, repeated slides to create the shimmering tone of amplified metal sliding against wire. MARI KIMURA The creative process of morphing the expressions of humans and machines is artistically very inspiring to me. JOSHUA FRIED The same as any: each piece must be true to its own essence, well-formed, and suited to the instruments. LEE RANALDO For my piece I traced over various parts of the photo--the line of Madonna's hand, her eyes, earrings, etc and used these to represent the pitch value of each string on the GuitarBot. The other parameter of the instrument that I worked with was the speed of the rotation of the picking wheel that plucks the strings---for this I used the dark-to-light values of the original picture---the darker the shadows the faster the picking. I am particularly interested by the complex interplay that your ensemble creates between mechanical presence and the human players. What are your thoughts on this relationship? ERIC SINGER I believe it is an entirely new experience for the human players. The robots create a physical, responsive presence (unlike synthesizers) which can profoundly affect the humans interacting with them. Because they move as well as sound, they take on a personality of sorts, and inspire the human players in a unique way. MARI KIMURA Once I heard the GuitarBot play and especially, after seeing them slide up and down, it started to evoke unexpected musical feelings in me, and to affect me emotionally. I find it exciting to be able to create music with new kinds of musical expressions evoked by a machine and to play and react differently than interacting with a human player. There is a mechanical presence on stage beside myself that moves, and I started to imagine GuitarBot as actually four individuals; I would come in for a rehearsal and ask, "So, how is Mr. TWO today?" (he is the most temperamental of the four). Although I know that GuitarBot is controlled by the interactive computer, this robot started to assume its own personality and definite presence in my musical psyche. JOSHUA FRIED My own music for robots is played entirely by robots. There are those who insist on the human-player/machine-player interface over and above the machine/audience interface. They may be afraid of the TRUTH—that great music can be played entirely by robots, just as lousy music can be played by people. LEE RANALDO In essence, for my piece the ‘bot functions like a glorified tape deck. The program is run and the 'bot plays the piece. At the two gallery performances I played electric guitar alongside the ‘bot--improvising around the composition. As the composition itself was mostly about textural effects and clusters of shifting chords, it was easy for me to fit in a "fifth" part. MILENA IOSSIFOVA When thinking about robots many people think that the robot helps the man, but in the end what ends up happening is that we are people who man the robots. Playing with robots who know how to play themselves is very different that playing an instrument. All of our robots are triggered by a midi protocol, which makes it easy to activate the whole orchestra from one single max patch. We program each robotic unit to either be interactive with the audience or play a preprogrammed sequence. This gives us a lot of flexibility in which the instruments end up playing. Name musicians / artists who inspired you ERIC SINGER In no particular order: Conlon Nancarrow, one of the earliest composers to create extensive works for an automated instrument - the player piano. Frank Zappa, for the shear breadth of his musical genius. They Might Be Giants, for creating 20 years of brilliant and quirky pop music. Richard Boulanger, my mentor and a contemporary composer and performer of interactive music. The Fluxus movement and Andy Warhol, for redefining the rules of art. Bach and Schoenberg, two extremes of the mathematical beauty of music (or the musical beauty of mathematics?). BIL BOWEN Hermeto Pascual, Rahssan Roland Kirk, Harry Partch, Rem Koolhaus, Sun Ra... Brian Eno, I would have to say, has been a major influence on my work. Thinking about music in the greater context of sound in general, ambient sounds suggesting an environment whether real or projected... these were ideas that really got me thinking. Eno's use of the studio with all of its technology as an instrument for composition, breaking down the separations between musician, producer, and engineer - seeing the studio a composition tool rather than a place where musical events are simply documented. And using technology as the music rather than for the music. Of course, this thinking had emerged in Jamaican sound system culture with dub and the genius of people like Scratch Perry and King Tubby, but when I first heard [Eno’s] Music for Airports- that changed everything. But I wanted to liberate the sounds from synthesizers and speaker boxes, to let them physically exist in a space, and to have a correlation with that space. Mechanical devices with all of their idiosyncrasies surrounding and physically playing a space. Like New York itself, an autonomous mechanical system. Brian Eno also denies being a musician and I think shedding one's musicianship is extremely healthy- to step back from thinking about notes in time and examining the bigger picture of sounds in space. It's all relative. KEVIN LARKE ... too many to name ... how about one from each LEMUR category: music: Charles Ives, software: Marviin Minsky, robotics: Rodney Brooks MARI KIMURA Mario Davidovsky, George Lewis, Conlon Nancarrow, Egberto Gismonti JOSHUA FRIED John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Richard Foreman, Brian Eno, Maurice Ravel, Frank Sinatra, La Monte Young, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Myron Kreuger, Stanley Kubrick, Marcel Duchamp, Stereolab JEFF FEDDERSEN Tom Waits and Arnold Dreyblatt, for connecting an avant-garde sensibility to driving, fascinating music. Tell about your live performances; how do you develop them? ERIC SINGER We try to present an eclectic mix of composers, performers and instruments. In recent performances at Gigantic ArtSpace, this included performances by the aforementioned composers; myself, playing techno on my instrument, the "Sonic Banana"; Zaftig, a project of LEMUR member Jeff Feddersen, who perform on physical instruments of their own design; and interactive jams on the robots by other LEMUR members. MARI KIMURA I actually write my plans and musical notes down on a piece of paper, then program the computer (MaxMSP) to fit my musical needs. For GuitarBotana, I would get together with GuitarBot and try things out, and depends on the way it performs I would decide to modify or change the manner of interaction. How could you define "a robotic jam session" ? ERIC SINGER That depends on who is doing the jamming, but it could mean 1) robots interacting with other robots by means of algorithmic computer programs, or 2) humans playing along with robots, with the humans being influenced by the robots by listening with their ears, and the robots being influenced by listening through computer software. MARI KIMURA In my subjective feeling, the robot takes up its own personality and almost starts to exist as an individual with its own desires and preferences. That is really exciting to be affected by. JOSHUA FRIED It's anything you want it to be. I give you permission. JEFF FEDDERSEN I think the robots I've made are less suited to a "jam session" in the traditional sense, but are quite good at becoming part of an environment of sound. So just as a forest has a soundscape of bird song and rustling leaves, ForestBot and !rBot can become an intriguing part of city soundscape.
Special Thanks to Gayle Snible http://lemurbots.org 1 2 << of 2 | ||||||||
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