The University of Victoria’s Music Intelligence and Sound Technology Interdisciplinary Collective (MISTIC) presented an evening of live performances of compositions and improvisations for humans and robots and/or robotic musical instruments. This concert took place at Open Space on Sunday, January 23, at 8:00 p.m. The Machine Orchestra brought together custom-built robotic musical instruments and human performers with modified instruments, unique musical interfaces, and hemispherical speaker-pods. A pioneer in new musical instruments, Andy Schloss (Seattle/Victoria) is a virtuoso on the radiodrum. He currently teaches at the University of Victoria. Ajay Kapur builds custom electronic instruments and is currently the director of the Music Technology program (MTIID) at the California Institute of the Arts. Arne Eigenfeldt is an associate professor of electroacoustic music at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Composer Darren Miller hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Rockstar coder Steven Ness is a PhD Candidate at the University of Victoria. Trimpin (Seattle) is a sculptor, sound artist, musician, composer, engineer, and inventor. His visit was part of the preparation for a major installation at Open Space in Spring 2012. Cathy Lewis (Victoria) joined MISTIC as a guest performer on viola. Daniel Tones is an award-winning percussionist equally committed to fostering creative development in aspiring musicians. Trimpin: The Sound of Invention, Peter Esmonde’s documentary about Trimpin was screened the previous evening, Saturday, January 22, starting at 8:00 p.m. Research in Musical Robotics funded by an NSERC/CCA New Media Initiative. Concert premiered new KarmetiK Robots designed by Ajay Kapur and Michael...
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