As part of the Smithsonian Institute and The Kennedy Center’s 25/40 celebration (which commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 40th year of VSA,) Shimon and the Shimi robots will be performing on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
They’ll be joined onstage by their creator, Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology director Gil Weinberg and percussionist Jason Barnes, who wears a prosthetic drumming arm invented by Weinberg. Rounding out this robotics super group will be Director of Georgia Tech Athletic Bands, Chris Moore and PhD candidate Mason Bretan, accompanied by bassist Michael Bowie and trumpet player Dovonte McCoy.
Weinberg said their hour-long performance will begin with Shimon and Shimi doing what they do best – improvising and playing music based on artificial intelligence and algorithms. But this thirty-minute jam session represents a gigantic step forward in the robot’s musical abilities, Weinberg said.
“It’s the first time, ever, that we will play a full evening program,” he said. “My research has always been about, ‘Let’s try this algorithm, let’s see if the robot can understand this way or improvise that way,’” he said.
For seven years, Weinberg has experimented with Shimon’s artificial intelligence, teaching the robot to play a marimba as well as improvise and react to live musicians. Now, Shimon, the Shimis and crew will perform original music that showcases their signature blend of human and machine. Weinberg, Bretan and Moore wrote six original pieces for the performance.
At the half-way point of the show, Barnes will join the group on stage. That’s when Weinberg will explain to the audience that all the technology they’ve witnessed so far is actually inspiring similar technology for people with disabilities – as evidenced by Barnes’ cyborg drumming arm.
Barnes has become a more expressive drummer through the help of the drumming arm, Weinberg said, and the second half of the performance aims to show off this newfound musicianship.
“He can play things that humans can’t play, anything from speed to complexity. So the pieces Jason plays will start as soft and detailed and sophisticated but then grow to something that is much crazier, upbeat, showing the speeds and polyrhythms and all the unique things that only this arm can play.”
Ultimately, Weinberg said the focus for the 25/40 performance is about making music that is emotional, music that will touch people. This time the fact that artificial intelligence and robotic arms are making music isn’t the only justification of the art.
“It actually got to the point where we can think about the music, how to create beautiful, expressive, emotional music that will touch people. Of course, AI is always there, but now it’s not the only thing that’s there.”
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