Computer slips into diva mode to sing sappy '90s ballads
Computers can sing. There's no Mariah Carey of machines just yet. But there is a fully automated machine that can sing like a diva. Martin Backes, a German visual and sound artist, has a new installation called „What Do Machines Sing Of?" He's programmed a machine with SuperCollider, an open-source algorithmic composition tool used by musicians and scientists who work with sound, to sing ballads from the heartbreak-music era of the '90s.
The machine isn't pulling a HAL 9000 with a rendition of Daisy Bell. Instead it belts out Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" and Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" -- songs that are instantly recognizable, painful and powerful. "As the computer program performs these emotionally loaded songs, it attempts to apply the appropriate human sentiments," the artist states on his site. "This behavior of the device seems to reflect a desire, on the part of the machine, to become sophisticated enough to have its very own personality."
[Image credit: Martin Backes]
