MEET THE LEAGUE OF ELECTRONIC MUSICAL URBAN ROBOTS

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LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban
Robots, lemurbots.org) was founded in 2000
by Eric Singer. Even though the robotic instru-
ments are computer controlled, they play “real”
(as opposed to synthesized) music, combin-
ing the warmth of real instruments with the
precision of robots. ( 1) ModBots, designed
by Bill Bowen and Singer, are intended to add
ambient sound to architectural spaces.
( 2) ForestBot, designed by Jeff Feddersen

and Milena Iossifova, is made from 25 ten-foot flexible metal stalks tipped by egg rattles. Computer-controlled vibrational motors shake the stalks. ( 3) Chad Redmon, Kate Chapman, Kevin Larke, and Singer's TibetBot uses six mallets to strike three traditional singing bowls. ( 4) !rBot, by Feddersen, Iossifova, Michelle Cherian, Brendan J. FitzGerald, Singer, Larke, and Ahmi Wolf, opens like a mollusk and rattles a bouquet of Peruvian goat-hoof maracas.

Composer and media artist Peter Kirn is the author of Real World Digital Audio (Peachpit Press, 2005), a book on making music with digital technology, and editor of createdigitalmusic.com.