Cybraphon : Autonomous Robot Band

Blimpcast favourites, the amazing Edinburgh musical collective FOUND have built something. 

It's an autonomous robot band, but one that composes music according to how it's feeling, which is directly linked in to what people are saying about it on the internet. 

Emotion Meter

Cybraphon consists of a number of instruments, antique machinery, and found objects from junk shops operated by over 60 robotic components, all housed in a modified wardrobe. Its emotions are shown on a 100 year old school galvanometer; a motor-driven crank drives the bellows of an Indian classical instrument modified with 13 robotic servos; a switched fan pumps air through a Farfisa organ retro-fitted with robotic keys; 12 chimes are struck by suspended solenoids; numerous percussion instruments are hit by beaters attached to motors, including a cigar box with an integral spring “reverb”; and a purpose made vinyl record is cued robotically to play through antique brass gramophone horns. In addition to these musical components, Cybraphon has several internal light sources that are controlled on four fader channels, and infra-red motion detectors to monitor people watching it.

Shruti Box with wires

All these elements are controlled by a hidden computer via MIDI, DMX, and Arduino boards. And wire. Lots and lots of wire.

The computer runs custom software (coded in Python and MAX/MSP) to monitor the web and update Cybraphon’s emotions according to the rate at which its popularity is changing over time. All mentions of Cybraphon online that are indexed by Google are noted, as well as activity on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, MySpace, etc.

A review in a local newspaper, for example, will almost certainly radically change the mood of the installation – and hence the music it plays – soon after it appears. However, Cybraphon is an insecure, egotistical band. A good review will cheer it up in the short term, but once the initial excitement dies down it will soon become disillusioned if its fame does not continue to increase…

Cybraphon Demo Song from Cybraphon on Vimeo.

This reminds me of Marvin the paranoid android from Hitchhikers Guide, and I fully intend to visit the Cybraphon on my forthcoming jaunt to Edinburgh, hopefully then I can post a good review to cheer up the single minded and fame hungry curio. 

For more info go to the Cybraphon website  or to the Inspace Gallery in Edinburgh on Crichton Street. 

Found have loads of amazing free music via their website here

Episode #10.1: FOUND (feat. Cybraphon) - "You're No Vincent Gallo" from Off The Beaten Tracks on Vimeo.