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In the Studio: Artificial improvisation

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Artificial Improvisation

25/02/2020 GMT

Artificial improvisation

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Artificial improvisation

Composer Kris Bowers meets Shimon, a robot that can improvise live music

Award-winning composer Kris Bowers is in the studio with Professor Gil Weinberg. He meets Gil’s creation: the robot musician Shimon, which can improvise live music in any genre.

Professor Gil Weinberg has created the world’s first robot musician. Shimon is a marimba-playing robot with eight arms that can improvise live music in any genre.

The world is familiar with musical robots that can play programmed music, but Gil has created robotic musicians. This means they are musicians first, and robots second. In real time, these robot musicians come up with fresh ideas designed to inspire human musicians to play music in new ways.

Award-winning jazz composer Kris Bowers (Green Book, Dear White People, How They See Us) is in the studio with Gil, and many of Gil’s students and local jazz musicians. Together, they are exploring how artificial intelligence can push our understanding of what humans are capable of, and examine whether AI can enhance the abilities of musicians. They also ponder the question of whether a robot can truly be as creative as a human being.

Kris is examining three aspects of Gil’s robotic musicians, and taking part in some experiments that are happening publicly for the first time. The first aspect that Kris examines is Shimon’s ability to mirror the playing style of his fellow musicians; through this, Kris will be able to objectively analyse his own playing, with the hope of improving his craft in unprecedented ways. The second is exploring how Shimon has now been given the ability to improvise lyrics in a live rap battle, and the third is Gil’s work in the field of prosthetics. Kris plays with amputee drummer Jason Barnes, whose prosthetic drumming arm holds a stick that Kris can control with the music he plays.

Producer: Anishka Sharma

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