Podcast 257: Eric Singer

Published on Dec 16, 2018 20Objects

You can find some of Eric Singer's work featured in the archives here. Be sure to see Part 2 in 20Objects interview with Eric Singer below.

"I'm pretty sure you know Eric Singer's work. Some of his most well-known work includes Pat Metheny's 'The Orchestrion Project', but he's been doing robotic musical instruments for a long time. I remember the first time I saw a video of Eric work - it was the reveal for the Guitarbot, and it was jaw-dropping at the time.

Eric was a maker before there was such a thing, and was doing cool robots when robots weren't part of artistic practice. He was learning machining, embedded coding and electronic design when those phrases were more industrial 'work' than creative 'play'. And he ended up paving the way for all of us.

You can check out his current work at his http://www.singerbots.com/ site.

In this interview, we start the discussion with him about his background, some of his work with Pat (and others), and the process of coming up-to-speed on gear he had never considered part of the 'practice'. We ran out of time long before we ran out of topics, but we'll continue the chat next week.

Enjoy!"

Podcast 258: Eric Singer (Part 2)

Published on Dec 23, 2018 20Objects

"In last week's episode, we just scratched the surface of Eric's role in creating the maker's world we now occupy. So I called him back and we immediately did a second interview to fill in some of the gaps: what were the early days like, how did he actually get the stuff built, why the move to Pittsburgh. This continues the fascinating journey of Eric Singer, and helps us to further appreciate the way he helped shape the electronic music future.

I think it is especially important to consider what was happening during the early 2000's, when computer technology was moving forward so rapidly, and the financial marketplace was in post-internet-boom chaos. Eric kept cranking out the work, teaching dozens of people how to manage their art through the process of hardware and software production, and eventually leading to something as overwhelming as the Orchestrion Project.

Again, if you haven't yet checked out Eric's work, you should: http://www.singerbots.com/

Enjoy!"

Home Lab Life Ep. 6: Taylor Kuffner - Gamelatron and more...

YouTube Uploaded by proaudiostar on Sep 6, 2011

"Listen to extended interview here: http://soundcloud.com/proaudiostar/taylor-kuffner-home-lab-life


Taylor Kuffner - Home Lab Life Ep. 6 Extended Interview by ProAudioStar

Taylor Kuffner lets us into his work space and talks about his roboticized gamelan dubbed the "Gamelantron" which he uses Ableton to control. He also talks about his desire to create real physical live music experiences through creative means through both his Gamelantron and experiments with multipoint sound installations.

The Gamelatron is built with technology from LEMUR. LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots is a group of artists and technologists who create robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by Eric Singer, LEMUR creates exotic, sculptural musical instruments which integrate robotic technology. The result is computer-controlled mechanized acoustic musical instruments which can perform music by and with human musicians.
http://lemurbots.org/"

Eric Singer and Pat Metheny - Two Takes on DIY Mechanical Orchestration

Sound Builders: Eric Singer Turns Scrap Metal Into Human-Besting Robot Bands

"Eric Singer, founder of LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots)... Despite receiving his music degree from Phil Collins, Eric has gone on to create incredibly innovative music robots that have been used by the likes of Pat Metheny and Mari Kimura."

via Motherboard.tv. Be sure to check out the site for more including the full write-up for this video.
If you are into DIY, check out Motherboard's Sound Builders contest (also posted below).

You might recognize Eric Singer from these two previous posts:
LEMUR Slime-o-Tron: A Slimey Controller
dafnaLEMUR264 2 and The Riot Temple in Miami

Pat Metheny - The Orchestrion EPK

http://www.patmetheny.com/orchestrioninfo/
This one in via Gerard.

Pat Metheny flickr set by joelbrave

dafnaLEMUR264 2 and The Riot Temple in Miami

YouTube via dafnalula

"'Robotica' -- 2008, performance at LEMUR after my residency in May 2008 to write music for their music robots. (http://lemurbots.org)
I controlled the GuitarBot and various percussion bots using a Wii controller, my voice, and my custom Max patches w/ algorithms, Morse code and a polyrhythms. Text was created by an online 'poetry robot'.
dedicated to Al-Jazari, 13th century builder of automata."


via Joe: "The guy who spearheaded the robotic instruments project LEMUR (league
of electronic musical urban robots) is named Eric Singer and I saw some of the first instruments he was working on at his space in brooklyn, and I think they all responded to normal midi. Really cool stuff."

The Riot Temple in Miami

YouTube via thisisjorge

"'A visceral exploration of worship and violence.'

Taylor Kuffner : Composer
Ryan O'Connor : Sculptor
William Etundi : Producer"

More details on this exhibition/performance on Electronic Music Teacher

LEMUR Slime-o-Tron: A Slimey Controller

YouTube via gearwire

"LEMUR's Eric Singer has more than just a penchant for making his musical bots. In fact, he has a separate category altogether for very innovative musical controllers he creates and calls "Trons." Here, we take our first look at the Slime-o-Tron - a controller that works by moving conductive slime around copper nails. Check the video out to see the most unorthodox controller you can imagine, and see more on gearwire.com."