Press Kit: Troy Rogers | semi-nomadic robot herder | composer | musical robot maker
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Composer and robotic musical instrument builder Troy Roger performs at the Duluth Homegrown Festival. 2014.
Composers Troy Rogers and Steven Kemper at NIME 2009 with robotic musical instruments built by Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI)
Troy Rogers: Music
Troy Rogers is a composer and instrument builder who firmly believes that if all goes extremely well, there is a nonzero chance for humanity to ultimately leave some skewed semblance of a lasting musical legacy for the robotic remnants of other failed planets. As a musical robot maker, he co-founded Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI), a group of composers dedicated to exploring and expanding the potential of robotic musical instruments. As a Fulbright scholar, he spent time at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium working with Godfried-Willem Raes and what is perhaps the world’s largest robot orchestra, where he developed a singing vocal robot, Stemmetje. Living the life of an early 21st century semi-nomadic robot herder, he resides in Duluth, MN when not touring the country in the RoboRig, a mobile platform for the development and dissemination of music for robots. He performs on streets and stages alike as Robot Rickshaw, an act that earned an Editors Choice Award at the 2015 Bay Area Maker Faire. Recognized with a Minnesota Emerging Composer Award by the American Composers Forum, he is currently at work on a new set of live music for his robot band, slated to be recorded by acclaimed Chicago producer Steve Albini later this year. Rogers is also a committed independent educator, regularly presenting lectures and offering Making Music with Robots and STEAM education workshops at universities, galleries, community art centers, makerspaces, and schools throughout the US.
Check out a few recordings below:
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An ensemble of robotic musical instruments improvise with drummer Steve Snider. Sneak peak of a track from the subsequently released ablum. Musical robots: vocal robot Stemmetje, string robot AMI (Automatic Monochord Instrument), and clarinet robot CARI (Cylindrical Aerophone Robotic Instrument). The robots listen to the audio signal from the drums in real time, deriving pitch (which leads to interesting output given the noisiness of drums and cymbals), rhythmic, and timbral patterns. Steve also hears and responds to the robots, and the robots hear each other, giving rise to some beautifully chaotic feedback and noise in the control signal pathways, pushing the human-robot system into rock overdrive.
When I arrived at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium for a residency in 2009, Godfried-Willem Raes had just completed <HAT>: the “Hit AnyThing” robot commissioned by Richard D. James. I was tasked with creating a compositional study to explore and test the instrument’s capabilities in advance of the instrument’s eventual delivery to Aphex Twin. This is a recording of the resulting music.
Troy Rogers performs music for robots at Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth, MN.
Expressive Machines' robotic musical instruments AMI, CARI, and TAPI perform at Let There Be Light Festival, Charlottesville VA, Dec. 2012
Stemmetje: a singing vocal robot created by Troy Rogers
A video posted by a fan documenting an Expressive Machines performance at the Wormhole in Savannah, GA, Dec. 4, 2011.
A human + robot improvisation performance featuring the EAR Duo and EMMI's MARIE at the Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium.
Troy Rogers at MN Made Festival
Presentation, Robotic Musical Instrument Workshop, and Performance
St. Cloud State University, MN
Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2014
Study No. 3 for PAM and MADI, composed with Expressive Machines, Live at NIME 2009
A video created at the University of Virginia in the early days of EMMI, not long after the creation of our first robotic instrument PAM (Poly-tangent Automatic (multi-)Monochord). Looking back on this now, it's interesting to note which of our predictions have since come to fruition.
Robot Rickshaw, a human-powered cart of robotic musical instruments created by composer Troy Rogers and Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI), performs on the Lakewalk in Duluth, MN. Photo credit: Melissa Maki
Composer Troy Rogers performs with the robotic musical instruments Stemmetje (a vocal robot), AMI (Automatic Monochord Instrument), CARI (Cylindrical Aerophone Robotic Instrument), and MADI (Multi-mallet Automatic Drumming Instrument).
Troy Rogers performs with Expressive Machines Musical Instruments’ (EMMI) MARIE and the EAR Duo at the Southern in Charlottesville, VA
Stemmetje (Dutch: little voice): a vocal robot created by composer and robotic musical instrument maker Troy Rogers. This singing robot consists of multiple robotically tunable Helmholtz resonators tuned to the ranges of human vocal formants.
Stemmetje (Dutch: little voice): a vocal robot created by composer and robotic musical instrument maker Troy Rogers. This singing robot consists of multiple robotically tunable Helmholtz resonators tuned to the ranges of human vocal formants.
The robotic musical instrument system MARIE (Monochord-Aerophone Robotic Instrument Ensemble), created by Expressive Machines Musical Instruments. This modular electroacoustic robotic instrument system (MEARIS) comprises CARI (Cylindrical Aerophone Robotic instrument), a clarinet-like musical robot (left), and the robotic string instrument AMI (Automatic Monochord Instrument), right. Photo credit: Troy Rogers
Troy Rogers with Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI) at Art Basel Miami, 2012. With composer-collaborators Steven Kemper (left) and Scott Barton (right) as well as various robotic musical instruments created by Expressive Machines.
Composers Troy Rogers and Scott L. Miller performing with musical robots at MN Made 2014 at St. Cloud State University, MN. Photo credit: Melissa Maki
Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI), a troupe of composer/robotic instrument maker/performers performs in front of the Harold Golen Gallery as part of The Street Festival during Art Basel Miami, 2012.
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