Last year, Christine Southworth and I founded Ensemble Robot, with the help of a grant from LEF. The goal of the project is to create an orchestra of robotic instruments and produce a repertoire for innovative performances for human players and robots. We invent and build the machines, as well as design and implement unique collaborations.

This year we did a piece in the Hall of Electricity for Van de Graaff Generator, Tesla Coil, Robots, and human players. I played the high voltage machines with a laser instrument I built called the Termenova; Christine (who conceived of and composed the piece) sang inside the cage while I threw million volt lightening bolts in her direction. It was a fantastic performance with about 500 people in attendance.

We also participated in the Boston Cyberarts Festival; we created an interactive music-evolution installation piece as well as a performance for electronic gamelan, robotic instruments, and modern dance. The evolution piece encouraged users to play music on a keyboard. The heliphon (a xylophone based instrument in the shape of a double helix) learned from the player, then evolved and elaborated upon the music using algorithms (written by Giles Hall) that can distinguish such features as key, meter, and complexity.