petals

As meaning is slowly being drained out of my life.

Principal Types of Advanced Technology Used in the
“Toyota Partner Robot”
1. To play musical instruments
Toyota developed artificial lips that move with the same finesse as human lips, which, together with robots` hands, enables the robots to play trumpets like humans do…

So, apparently, Toyota is developing robots to become personal assistants to human beings- not a bad idea, I guess…. UNTIL they decide that in this they are making a robot that is just as capable as any human of playing the trumpet. Personally, and quite frankly, as an artist, I am insulted. A musician emotes, a musician artistically interprets and creates communicative music to express oneself through. When you teach a robot to do something like this, it cheapens everything, turning the creative process into a mechanical and logical series of patterns and combinations. Art is about humanity, about expressing and manipulating every stretch of human feeling and emotion. I’m utterly appalled that anyone would even think to program something like this into a robot… As if musicians already aren’t having enough trouble trying to make a living playing their instruments.

Toyota wants its partner robots to have human characteristics, such as being agile, warm and kind and also intelligent enough to skillfully operate a variety of devices in the areas of personal assistance, care for the elderly, manufacturing, and mobility.

…Scary, eh? Not only are they artistically expressing themselves, but they’re warm and fuzzy and taking care of your grandparents, too!

You can read about their release here.

Meanwhile, back at the lab…. (ha)

So, as a sidenote, more to come later about my recital. I’m still kind of irked about this mechanical madness.