Orchestra Meccanica Marinetti gave rise to a virtuous process that brought together
artists, the university and companies to find new, innovative solutions to a very old
problem – that of the mechanical musician.
Two robot percussionists, each fitted with two arms with beaters activated by industrial
brushless electric motors. Each robot has its own microprocessor that steers its arms,
through levers. The design of the arms (inspired by aerospace design and engineering)
combined with the movement control used is highly innovative in approach, and able
to generate high-frequency drum beats at differing intensities and speeds, simulating the
movement of a human drummer. The robots are able to play rhythmic MIDI sheet music.
▸ Show control system and interactive MIDI sheet music with sound, with DMX 512 protocol
lighting control.
▸ Synthesis and reproduction of sound in real time.
▸ Gypsy Sonalog shell (MIDI gestural controller)
(MaxMSP code and processing by Motor)
▸ Innovative sound analysis and recognition SW based on perceptive logics, able to be
trained to recognise the sound of individual drum beats through the real-time simulation
of human hearing.
(Bachelor thesis by Corrado Scanavino, Polytechnic of Turin);
▸ SW for previewing the show.
(VRMMP)
▸ Video in Processing and 3D Studio Max
(Vivo Studio);
CREDITS