…A unique concert next week when musical machines are unleashed to an audience eager to hear improvisation in the widest possible meaning of the word.

One of those due to perform at the Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork is Han-earl Park’s robot-like io 0.0.1 beta++, a machine made from plumbing parts, kitchenware, missile switches, speakers and a microphone stand.

The tutor at University College Cork’s school of music has been developing the machine, which he prefers to call an automaton rather than a robot, since he received an Arts Council grant in 2007.

[Read the rest…]