Music by numbers? Robot conducts human orchestra
The robot has a humanoid face, hands and lower arms, which gesticulate with what could pass for passion as it bounces up and down and rotates during the live performance of Keiichiro Shibuya's opera "Scary Beauty" in the Emirate of Sharjah.
For Shibuya, a composer from Japan, the role of robots in our everyday lives may well be increasing, but it is up to us to decide how artificial intelligence might add to the human experience, and humans and androids create art together.
"This work is a metaphor of the relations between humans and technology. Sometimes the android will get crazy, human orchestras have to follow. But sometimes humans can cooperate very comfortably," he said.
Shibuya wrote the music, but the android controls the tempo and volume of the live show, and even sings at times.