Italian version
.art
28.10.03 League of Electronic Music Urban Robots.
Having an antropomorphic musical partner is an intimate desire of many electronic musicians, which dream of a partially controlled interaction with a machine able to be a part of their sound project. This could be one of the desires of League of Electronic Music Urban Robots, an artists and technicians collective which centers its activities on the development of robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by Eric Singer, this group has built several MIDI-controlled machines, such as the GuitarBot, made with four slide guitars, the TibetBot, with three 'Tibetan singing bowls' struck by six robotic mini-arms, the ForestBot, composed of 10 arms and 25 bells, and the !rbot, sort of a leather shell full of bells which emits sound by opening and closing. On their site it's possible to see and hear audio and video demonstrations which show the robots in action, solo or with another performer. The movement of the servomechanisms puts on stage the programmer's will and the interactions of the micromovements with the musical score. It's an automation always reconfigurable and adaptable to possibilities precluded to human musicians.