Android Opera ‘Scary Beauty’ Conducted by Robot

Apparently no jobs are safe from the robot invasion. Even if you happen to be an orchestra conductor you could be possibly at risk.

Meet Alter 3.  He’s the robot conductor of the new ‘Android Opera’, entitled Scary Beauty. The seven-minute piece was recently performed in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

The robot looks like something out of Terminator as it features a humanoid face, hands, and arms. During the seven-minute piece, Alter 3 waves his arms up and down to the rhythm of the music.

Robot Controls Tempo of Android Opera

The orchestral piece was written by Japanese composer Keiichiro Shibuya. While the piece was written by a human, the robot conductor is in charge of the tempo. Alter 3 will even add it’s own electro-vocals during the performance.

“The premise is that the android itself is moving according to its own will,” said its technician Kotobuki Hikaru.

Scary Beauty is part of the Sharjah Art Foundation’s on-going exhibition ‘Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics, Japanese Performance, and Sound Art’. The android opera has previously been shown in Tokyo, Japan, and Adelaide, Australia.

“This work is a metaphor of the relations between humans and technology. Sometimes the android will get crazy, human orchestras have to follow. But sometimes humans can cooperate very comfortably,” said Shibuya.

Check out our articles on Marscat the robot cat and China’s first fully automated restaurant.