German Premiere

Scary Beauty

Keiichiro Shibuya & The Japanese Philharmonic Düsseldorf
Robert-Schumann-Saal, Kunstpalast, Ehrenhof 4 – 5, 40479 Düsseldorf
Dates
13.03.2019
Ein humanoider Roboter mit künstlicher Intelligenz steht als Dirigent auf der Bühne.

At the concert’s centre: Alter 3. The humanoid robot employs an autonomous artificial intelligence. Face and hands resemble those of a human being, his body allowing an unhindered look at a metal skeleton, on servos, cables and control assemblies of a visibly complex machine. The Japanese Philharmonic Düsseldorf diligently follows Alter 3’s baton, flanked by Keiichiro Shibuya, composer and pianist of this “Android Opera”, as he chose to call his work himself, responsible for the electronic sound. Then, Alter 3 prepares to sing.  It sings “The Seven Last Songs of Human”, narrating a tale in which humanity will be unable to live without machines in the near future, machines it yet created itself. The songs are based on emblematic texts of literary history, their respective authors ranging from Michel Houellebecq through Yukio Mishima to William S. Burroughs and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Recalculated into three-dimensional vectors, the text fragments became the starting points of the songs performed.

Among Alter 3’s creators we have, apart from composer and musician Keiichiro Shibuya and software engineer professor Takashi Ikegami, the robotics expert, professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, especially. He is considered a pop star in his field, widely regarded as one of the most radical proponents of a coming society in which robots and humans exist alongside and with each other.

Duration: 60 min.

Concept, Musical Composition, Management: Keiichiro Shibuya; Live Music: Japanese Philharmonic Düsseldorf ; Development Alter 3: Hiroshi Ishiguro (Construction), Takashi Ikegami (Movement of the Android), Kohei Ogawa (Co-Construction), Itsuki Doi (Co-Development Movement); System Architect, Electronics: Hikaru Kotobuki; Support Programming: Masayuki Momo, Shinichi Yamagguchi; Light: Takayuki Fujimoto; PA: Hiroyuki Kanamori; Video: Tomohito Wakui; Stage Manager: So Ozaki; Technical Assistant: John Smith; Score Writing: Osamu Suzuki; Support Sound Programming: Daichi Miyata; Support Vocaloid: Justine Emard; Supervisor: Takehito Masui (Warner Music Inc. Japan); Producer: Tamami Kanda, Naomi Ohki, Momoko Nakamura. http://scarybeauty.com A Production by Keiichiro Shibuya, funded by ALIFE Lab, co-funded by Miraikan and in Cooperation with Osaka University, Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (Ishiguro Lab), of the University of Tokio, Ikegami Laboratory, Alternative Machine Inc. and Canon Marketing Japan Inc. Supported by the Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture und Orange Co. Ltd. A special project in the framework of the Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser, funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien. In cooperation with the Kunstpalast, Robert-Schumann-Saal.

Ein Darsteller steht einem Roboterarm gegenüber.
Festival · 13. – 31.03.2019

Hi, ROBOT!

The Human-Machine-Festival