From simple service robots at first, to more complex industrial robots, and now, robots appear in the art world, robots can accomplish more and more things, the application of more and more scenarios.
Today, a band is very popular, and the three musicians who make up the band are all robots.
On April 27, 2019, on the occasion of the 108th anniversary of Tsinghua University, a unique robot band staged a modern and classical musical stage play “Mojia-Yin” at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University.
The show features three distinctive robotic musicians. They are Yu Heng, a bamboo flute robot, Yao Guang, and Kaiyang, a drum row robot, named after three of the Big Dipper stars.
The first in the country
The three robot musicians formed “Mojia” robot band, which is the first robot performance group with Chinese cultural characteristics in China.
The three robot musicians will play konghou and row Drum, a traditional instrument with a long history in China. The robot adopts three different playing techniques, namely blowing, plucking and striking. The music played by the robot is all original music, and has been tailor-made for the band by the composer.
Robot art is a new art form emerging in foreign countries in recent years. Different from industrial robots and service robots, robot art pays more attention to exploring the relationship between robots and human beings, society and culture.
China’s robot art is still in its infancy. “Mojia Fantasy”, a robot stage play, is the first to combine robot performance, Chinese ethnic instrumental music, multimedia stage drama and other technical and cultural elements together, which is a new attempt to robot art with Chinese characteristics.
Behind the birth of the band
On the stage, the robot musicians in ink armor are graceful in flowing gowns. The band’s creators are mostly from the Department of Information Art design and the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University.
The team consists of experts in the field of robot control and interaction, sculpture artists, new media artists and musicians, and is an innovative team spanning many different disciplines.
Let’s take a look at the cast:
M sea peng
Chief director, chief scientist of the project, Associate professor of Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, scholar in the field of robot interaction. He graduated from Tsinghua University and The University of Tokyo with degrees in physics and electrical engineering, and has extensive experience in interdisciplinary research in the fields of design and engineering. He participated in the development of the world’s first robot rock band in Japan in 2013.
Hu Tianjian
Expert in the field of robot control. He graduated from Tsinghua University and won the special scholarship of Tsinghua University.
Zhang Sheng,
Director of robot modeling and structure, PhD student of sculpture Department, Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, young sculptor, good at wood sculpture and dynamic sculpture. Is the domestic robot modeling design and sculpture art combined forerunner.
Hu Xiaoyang
Music director, young composer and producer. He graduated from the China Conservatory of Music. A series of original music was created for the robot.
Li Jiayin
Executive director, master student of Information Art design, School of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University.
In only half a year, the creative team completed the artistic creation and technical research and development of a beautiful robot stage musical from a piece of white paper. They have made breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, music technology, plastic arts.
“Robots have so many possibilities and can do so many things that we couldn’t imagine before.” “Said Mi Haipeng, associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, who is in charge of the project.
Speaking about the biggest difficulty in the project, Mi haipeng said it was to give the robot a human “flavor”. Take flute playing as an example, it requires the coordination of mouth, tongue and breath, including a lot of sound skills, it is difficult for robots.
To this end, the team did a lot of debugging for the musician “Yuheng”, and each time the flute film was changed, it would recalibrate and adjust the airflow required under each pitch.
In addition, for the beauty of the modeling, the team invited sculptors to design, in the case of the robot has multiple motors, wires, to ensure that the robot shape, structure, wiring, operation and other aspects of cooperation, the process is really complicated.
With culture and emotion, technology is no longer cold
In What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly writes: “[Technology] no longer seems so cold. We have begun to see beyond its material disguise and see it as above all an act. There is a shell, but at its core it is soft.”
The birth of Mojia Robot band is a positive attempt for technology and humanity to get close to each other, as well as a beneficial exploration for conveying Chinese traditional culture through technology and demonstrating “cultural confidence”.
In an age when robots can already draw, sculpt and compose music, they can now play Musical Instruments. Will the art world be filled with robots in the future?
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