CWU Music Professor Makes Robots Dance To The Tune Of Your Ideas

November 3, 2004

Contact: Mark Polishook (509-963-1245/fax 509-963-1239/e-mail: polishoo@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - As an art form, music is constantly growing and changing. That, in part, is due to changing technology. This adaptation is now being demonstrated through a remarkable, interactive project by Dr. Mark Polishook, Central Washington University music professor.

"Our modern technology includes computers, robots and software, so it makes sense to make music out of those things," Polishook says.

Polishook, a composer, jazz pianist and new media artist, is the creator of "Robots-in-Residence," a project that allows the audience to send e-mail to robots. The mechanism that makes this possible is software written in SuperCollider, a programming language that allows for real-time audio synthesis.

With the help of a Northwest Academic Computing Consortium grant, Polishook is giving workshops in Sweden, Denmark and Poland this week, where he teaches music professionals and students to use SuperCollider.

The workshops introduce composers to the use of computer code in place of commercially available software programs. This gives composers more control over computers as instruments to perform and compose music.

"Robots-in-Residence provides a way to explain programming that's captivating," Polishook adds.

Robots-in-Residence is an installation that features robots, sound, video and incoming e-mail from audience members. Participants, either on-site or over the Internet, can send e-mail messages to the robots, which read the e-mail aloud and then respond using "chatterbot," a software program that is able to engage in conversation.

Examples of conversations are posted on the Robots-in-Residence Web site, at http://robots.music.cwu.edu:

Posthuman - What's the point of this installation?
Robot - Are such questions much on your mind?
Posthuman - Why have you made it?
Robot - You're not really talking about me -- are you?
Posthuman - What can it do?
Robot - Speak. I am interested in how your thoughts separate from your body.
Posthuman - Can it make bread?
Robot - Why have you even bothered to communicate?

"I call it a 'robotic melodrama,'" Polishook notes, "because the robots are talking over music."

The robots actually move to the music, as well, swaying and gyrating when an e-mail is read.

"In a way, the robots dance to your ideas," Polishook points out.

Polishook created the Robots-in-Residence installation last year while on sabbatical. After receiving a Fulbright grant, he served as an artist-in-residence in the computer science department at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Robots-in-Residence was displayed in the Aarhus public library in June, receiving more than 3,000 visitors each day. The installation also attracted online visitors from around the world.

Nov. 12 through 14, Polishook will also present the Robots-in-Residence installation in Krakow, Poland, at the 12th International Audio Art Festival.

Streaming audio and video will be broadcast on the Web at http://robots.music.cwu.edu. Those interested can send e-mail and receive a response from the robots, while watching the robots dance to the music composed by their ideas.