Tari Tidak Cepat represents a small robot’s quest for meaning and beauty. Having heard the Gamelan from afar, he seeks to be able to participate himself in such a meditative and uplifting endeavor. Like all new musicians, he is far from perfect, but strives to create the sounds and rhythms he feels inside. His brother supports and encourages him with a dance and some less-skilled musical expression. A few amused and endeared onlookers help out as
well.
It turns out that Googling “robot Gamelan” brings up a lot of results, but they all seem to be the opposite of what is embodied in Tari Tidak Cepat. These other robotic gamelans involve large numbers of specialized robotic actuators, each placed so as to precisely strike an instrument, controlled deterministically like a distributed player piano. In our performance, the robots must learn to adapt, like human performers, to a variety of instruments they are not tailored to. They observe their own performance, and try to correct their stumbles and improve as they go. They get flustered, but also sometimes find their groove. The robots are fully autonomous (free of human influence or deterministic programming) during the performance, very tuned in to their environment. They are a little nervous on stage, so no two performances are ever the same. They hope you will encourage them on their very un-“robotic” journey of self-discovery and self- expression.
Barry Werger-Gottesman has been developing and presenting robotic performance art pieces since 1995, and has toured worldwide with his robotic theater troupe Ullanta Performance Robotics. He has won awards in numerous international robotic competitions and research projects, and has worked in robotic research and development for NASA, DARPA, NSF, ONR, and many companies that develop research robots and their associated software. He developed the Ayllu distributed robotic programming environment, MARS/L for Pioneer, and the PAI robotic library, which are used in numerous research institutions. After a few years of detoxing from government robotics projects, Barry is finally making progress in his nefarious plan to unite the musical and robotic aspects of his life.
Bill Alves probably wishes he hadn't been roped into this full-blown demonstration of the perils of uncertainty.