I
wrote about the wonders of David Byrne's blog a few months back. The ex-Talking Head is a constant font of knowledge and restlessly curious about the world. Not least it's absurdities.
Back then I wrote about his blog: "A
recent post
started: "I’m in Dallas — or more accurately, Richardson, a silicon
suburb north of the city — to meet with David Hanson, a maker of
realistic (i.e. human) looking robots." While there Byrne expects to
record a song (in English as well as Spanish no less) so that he might
assist Hanson in building a life-like robot with humanistic facial
gestures."
Well what we didn't know then was that Byrne was talking about "Julio". A robot who sings in David Byrne's voice, and whom now, is with us. Or at least close.
As Byrne describes in his
blog he originally came across the lifelike robot, created by roboticist David Hanson at an event in New York called Nextfest. Not long after Byrne was offered the opportunity to exhibit at the
Machines and Souls. Digital Art exhibition in Madrid, Spain. He thought of Hanson and the two set about building what Byrne describes as an example of the "uncanny valley":
Recently Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori proposed
the existence of something called the uncanny valley. This “valley” is
an area of emotional uncertainty and often revulsion experienced by an
observer when a robot or computer animation (for example) approaches
being human, is almost believable, but not quite.
He
suggests that our emotional empathy with animations and robots
increases as they get closer and closer to being human (or animal)—but
then, at a certain point, they fall into the valley, and our empathy
turns to disgust. In his view they switch from being a cute thing
approaching humanity to a bad or faulty version of humanity. It is at
this point that we see them as not merely slightly strange, but as a
human with serious problems. If the creation can succeed in being a
little bit better as a believable creature the feeling of revulsion
disappears. For some viewers, recent films like Beowulf fall into this
valley, while others find the almost humans acceptable.
So Byrne aims to create this "uncanny valley", through recording a song and having "Julio" sing, or replicate it's human characteristics as closely as possible. Which brings up the discussion on what it means to be a musician, complete with the expressions, emotions and feelings that make up what this thing called "music" and performance is:
Knowing that singing elicits an emotional reaction from a listener and
observer, I sense that encountering Julio might push some very odd
buttons. I remember that my first encounter with Hanson's robot made me
rethink what it means to see, to look. We think of seeing and looking
as something optical, something the eyes do. But actually seeing
something, and recognizing it, is a lot more than that—it is the act of
“naming” the thing the eyes are locking on to. It involves other meta
brain functions that often have nothing to do with optics or the
muscles controlling the eye. If seeing were just the visual and
eye-muscle behavior, then isn't that the same as what Jules does? And
then isn't singing, and displaying the attendant emotions, the same as
what Julio does?
It sounds ludicrous but as technology develops you can almost see it's crass, futuristic commercial potential. Why have one Coldplay touring the globe when you could have half a dozen? Isn't sitting in those seats at the very back of the arena
kind've like watching emotionless blobs from a distant anyway? If people are already going to see movies of concerts (Rolling Stones
Shine A Light, Talking Heads/Byrne's own
Stop Making Sense, any Gorillaz gig) then surely it wouldn't be a stretch to pay half the price to see a slick, produced, animatronic version?
You could eventually marry it to the 'Don't Look Back' series of events where bands play entire albums from start to finish. A lifelike 60s version of The Rolling Stones doing
Exile on Main Street. A reunited Pink Floyd doing
The Wall. Nirvana playing
Nevermind! A reunited Beatles! Jimi Hendrix!! The Avalanches back when they were still a band!
Watch the video on Byrne's
blog.
(Pic: Hanson Robotics)