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Christine Southworth
Press

 

Zap!, Boston Museum of Science, April 27, 2007

Listen to Radio Features on
ZAP! :		 Marrying Science and Music (wgbh.org)
with Senior Health Desk correspondent Helen Palmer, WGBH
   

Music & The Invasion of Technology, featuring Heavy Metal Boston Museum of Science, January 25, 2006

 

Listen to Radio Features on
Music & The Invasion of Technology :

 

HERE & NOW (mp3, 10.8 MB)
High Tech Bots play Ancient Tune (here-now.org)
with Robin Young, WBUR, 1/25/06

 

WBUR Morning Edition (mp3, 5.1 MB)
preview by Matt Largey, WBUR, 1/25/06

 

 
Read features about Music & The Invasion of Technology and Ensemble Robot:  

Computerworld Schweiz
Hardware: Roboter musizieren und tanzen
09.03.2006 | 17:56 Uhr
Im Ensemble Robot spielen Musikanten aus Fleisch und Blut mit Robotern zusammen. Dabei entsteht eine faszinierende Musik.

by Jens Stark

«Ich bin der Musikant mit Taschenrechner in der Hand», trällerten die Mitglieder von Kraftwerk, liessen eine Menge elektronischer Klänge vom Stapel und gerierten sich in ihren Performances als humanoide Roboter. Ähnliches erwartet der Zuhörer, wenn er zum ersten Mal der Musik des «Ensemble Robot» lauschen möchte, und ist überrascht, wenn dann zunächst einmal Klänge des balinesischen Gamelan oder von Geige und Klarinette zu hören sind. Auch dann, wenn die eigentlichen Roboter zum Einsatz kommen, ist das Klanggebäude alles andere als elektronisch. «Die Roboter produzieren die Töne wie wir Menschen», erklärt Christine Southworth vom Ensemble Robot.

Read more


CNET: News.com
Robots Play a New Sound of Music

Dancing to the beat of a robot drummer
Kimberly W. Moy, The Boston Globe, 1/23/06

Shortly after she graduated from college with a minor in music, Christine Southworth found herself composing tunes no one could play.

So the MIT alumna took the next logical step: She had a friend invent a robot that could perform her polyrhythmic, Indonesian-inspired compositions.

On Wednesday at the Museum of Science, Southworth, now a student of computer music, will show off her ensemble's compositions and her latest robotic instruments -- which lie at the nexus between science and art. The relatively new Bot(i)Cello, whose $1,000 in parts include fans, strings, a wooden bowl and three windshield-wiper motors, will play alongside fellow robots, real-life Balinese gamelan players, and more-traditional instruments, such as a guitar, a violin, a bass, and a lyricon (a vintage wind instrument).

read more

MIT mashup: Robots and humans make beautiful music together

Bob Young , The Boston Herald , 1/24/06

First there was a troupe of 30 math, physics and engineering student musicians playing the traditional music of faraway Bali.

Then robots played music with humans and millions of volts of electricity. Now, from an idea that was fine-tuned in the halls and labs of MIT, the students, the robots and humans will share the stage tomorrow at the Museum of Science. “It was a natural connection,” said Evan Ziporyn, an MIT professor, clarinetist and founder of Gamelan Galak Tika, gamelan being a percussion-dominated instrumental ensemble native to parts of Indonesia.

Natural? Robots and people playing music together? For Ziporyn and Christine Southworth, co-founder and director of Ensemble Robot, composer in residence at the museum and a member of the gamelan orchestra, this show makes perfect sense.

read more

 

Defend Yourself:
Christine Southworth
Luke O'Neil, Weekly Dig , 1/25/06

The Museum of Science's Music and the Invasion of Technology showcase is from the future. Literally. Well, not literally. Technically, it's in the future, but soon it will be here - and thank goodness, because it sounds crazy. For this premiere performance, Christine Southworth has composed music for robots and humans to play together.

read more (pdf)

Rocking Robots Take Stage
MIT Tech Talk, 1/25/06

It'll be a jamming night at the Museum of Science as humans, computers and robots join forces to present a musical hybrid of Western and traditional Balinese music. "Music and the Invasion of Technology," featuring premieres by Professor Evan Ziporyn and alumna Christine Southworth, will take place at the Museum of Science's Cahners Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m.

Best-known for compositions that bridge Balinese and Western musical idioms to forge a new sound, Ziporyn has composed "Belle Labs" as a virtuosic dialogue between two humans (Todd Reynolds on violin and Ziporyn on clarinet) and a robot, pushing the musicians and the machine to their limits.

Southworth, who graduated from MIT in 2002 in mathematics with a minor in music, is co-founder of Ensemble Robot, which premiered "Zap!" -- a work for Van de Graaff generator, robots and musicians -- at the Museum of Science in February 2005. The Boston Phoenix called the work "truly electrifying."

Southworth's "Zap" and Ziporyn's "Belle Labs" both use the Heliphon robot, a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)-controlled double-helix-shaped xylophone that plays by striking metal keys with solenoids.

read more (pdf)

Zap!, Boston Museum of Science, February 4, 2005

ZAP! is "truly electrifying!"

Will Spitz, The Boston Phoenix, "Out: Going Electric" 2/10/05

 

Features:

"Talk about an ELECTRIC performer!"

Providence Journal pop music writer Rick Massimo's preview :
"A High Power Show at the Museum of Science"

"as gently balladic (as it is) hard-driving and otherworldly"

Bob Young's preview from The Boston Herald/The Edge:
"Ensemble Robot creators `Zap!' preconceived ideas of electronic music"

 

"High-voltage Star-Power!"

MIT Tech Talk's preview & interview by Lynn Heinemann :
"Southworth Makes Music Outside the Rules"
ArtTalk: Christine Southworth, composer

 

 

Electrostatic Society of America review, by Humphrey Wong

 

Listings & Columns:

  • Editor's Pick in The Boston Phoenix 2/4/05


    FRIDAY 4 AVANT-GARDE
     The Museum of Science's 40-foot-tall Van de Graaff generator is an imposing one-trick pony - if you've seen one five-million-volt spark, you've about seen 'em all - but now a young composer is going to make it sing. Brown grad student Christine Southworth has written an hour-long piece called Zap! that calls for a chamber/rock set-up (keyboards, flute, guitar, bass, voice, percussion), "robotic instruments" programmed by a team of MIT/RISD engineers, and one mammoth sparking machine. Both the generator and Southworth are MIT alums: the composer studied with Evan Ziporyn and describes her work as Steve Reich-influenced, post-minimalist acoustic electronica; the museum's Van de Graaff (the world's largest air-insulated model) was built at MIT in the 1940s and is said to be fond of the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat. Zap! gets its premiere tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum of Science, at Science Park in Boston, and it's free with museum admission, which is $14, $11 for children. Call (617) 723-2500.

  • Boston Globe 48 Hours to Kickoff & Go! Column 2/4/05

    48 hours to kick off: Come Sunday night, you'll be parked in front of the TV, waiting for the Pats to take the field. Here's what you can do to keep busy until then. February 4, 2005

    FRIDAY 6 PM Quitting time at the Museum of Science involves electricity, robots, and vodka, but happily not in that order. Start with a martini at the Science Street Cafe. At 6:30, the 40-foot Van de Graaff electric sparking generator becomes the centerpiece of a concert called ''Zap!" featuring real and robotic musicians. $14 adults; $12 senior citizens; $11 children. Science Park, Boston; 617-723-2500.


    GO! WEEKEND By Amy Graves  |  February 4, 2005

    HIGH ENERGY The towering Van de Graaff electric generator in the Theatre of Electricity of the Museum of Science throws off some serious sparks -- about 1.5 million volts' worth, we're told. Little did we know that it also can be manipulated to make music. In ''Zap!," composer Christine Southworth and robotics engineer Leila Hasan, alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, use the Van de Graaff to add sparks and static to an hourlong concert with eight other musicians. Southworth composed the music; Hasan controls the generator with a laser-theremin midi controller. Laurie Anderson would be so proud. At 6:30 p.m. Tickets $14; includes museum admission. Science Park, Boston, 617-723-2500.

Very special thanks to LEF Foundation
for making this performance possible.

We would also like to thank The Boston Museum of Science,
MIT, Brown University, and Andy Cavatorta.