Troy Rogers - The MEARIS Concept: Making Music with Modular Electro-Acoustic Robotic Instrument Systems

In this presentation, Rogers will discuss various aspects of his creative work with musical robots and other devices, with a focus on hybrid robotic instrument systems in which the robotic aspect can function as an automatically tunable acoustic filter as well as acoustic sound source, a scenario which gives rise to increased parametric depth and expressive potential.


Troy Rogers (http://troy82.com) is a composer, musical robot maker, educator, and semi-nomadic robot herder. For more than ten years, the predominant locus of his artistic output has been the development of robotic musical instruments and the creation of music for these devices. In this work, the compositional act begins with the conception, design, and fabrication of each new instrument, and the personality of each device becomes understood and expressed through musical play. Troy Rogers is a co-founding member of Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI). A Fulbright Fellowship in 2009-10 allowed him to spend time at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium with what is perhaps the world's largest and most versatile robot ensemble, where he apprenticed with Godfried-Willem Raes, developed a vocal robot, and composed music for the M&M Robot Orchestra. Troy is currently based in Duluth, Minnesota, where he creates music, robotic musical instruments, and other assorted contraptions and, weather allowing, pushes a rickshaw of musical robots around town wearing a hazmat suit + teddy bear.