Gamelatron

The Gamelatron is the world’s first and only fully robotic complete Indonesia Gamelan Orchestra. It is the fruit of collaboration between The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR) and the composer Zemi17: A. Taylor Kuffner. It is a kinetic sculpture, sound installation, and a one-of-a-kind musical instrument. Modeled after traditional Balinese and Javanese gamelan orchestras, the Gamelatron is an amalgamation of traditional bronze xylophones and hanging gongs, with a suite of percussive sound makers. MIDI sequences control up to 170 robotic striking mechanisms that produce intricately woven rhythmic melodies. The Gamelatron imitates the playing of more than 16 musicians controlled by a single composer via laptop computer communicating with as many as 8 proprietary 30-channel microprocessors. The beta version of the Gamelatron was completed in September of 2008. In May of 2010 a special designed modular version of the Gamelatron was completed and has since exhibited at the Joshua Tree Music Festival and The Lightning in a Bottle Festival in California, The Boom Festival in Portugal, The Electric Picnic Music Festival in Ireland as well as a month long concert tour of Russia. A third Gamelatron, designed to be a robotic replica of the archaic Balinese temple orchestra know as The Selonding, is scheduled to be completed in February 2011.