COMPEL Omeka Dev

Intersections

Item

Title

Intersections

Description

Machine expressivity is often thought of as involving precision, speed, rhythmic complexity, non-idiomatic (for human performers) pitch patterns and replication.  Human expressivity is often thought of involving groove, phrasing, affect, contour, variation, articulation, entrainment and communication.  While these attributes help shape our conceptions of what is human versus what is mechanical, they are not confined to one category or the other: humans can be precise and robots can groove.  Expressive identity is more analog than digital.  This does not preclude expressive spaces that are unique to humans and machines, rather, it suggests the areas between them are ambiguous and that the attributes that define them do not do so in a one-to-one fashion (instead, attribute-space relationships are a function of combination and context).  The music explores these areas of ambiguity and clarity.  Genre is treated in a similar way such that stylistic exemplars are presented authentically and in transformation.  The intersections in expressive identity and style illuminate what is exclusive and what is shared.

Performed by the Juventas New Music Ensemble and the musical robots PAM and CADI, which were designed and built by EMMI and the Music, Perception and Robotics Lab at WPI.

Juventas New Music Ensemble:

​Lidiya YankovskayaConductor

​Orlando CelaFlute
Wolcott HumphreyClarinet
Nate TuckerPercussion
Maja Tremiszewska, Piano
Olga Patramanska-BellViolin
Michael DahlbergCello

Recorded and mixed by Scott Barton

Creator

Date

2015

Instrumentation

for human and robotic musical ensemble (for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, tom-tom, PAM (robotic string instrument), and robotic percussion)

Duration

for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, tom-tom, PAM (robotic string instrument), and robotic percussion

Citation

Scott Barton, “Intersections,” COMPEL Omeka Dev, accessed November 23, 2024, https://compel-dev.vtlibraries.net/items/show/240.

Comments

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