There have been some bewildering developments in recent years relating to the ‘Daft Punkian’ concept of ‘robot DJ’, which has seen scientific teams around the world busy experimenting with artificially intelligent music-playing technology, and conjecturing that such technology will be in mass-market use 40-50 years from now.
The highly regarded Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology houses one such team and where in 2002, Assistant Professor Of Media Arts & Sciences, Chris Csikszentmihalyi launched the DJ-I Robot Sound System. I-Robot used a PC, several micro-controllers and an advanced ‘motion control’ system to automatically search, play and manipulate the vinyl records sitting on its turntables.
Over the past decade I-Robot has been on educative world tour, learning new techniques and generally stupefying its human counterparts. Csikszentmihalyi is keen, over time, to create the perfect spinner: “If we can make this machine work, we’ll give club owners an easy time.” And yet he has always been aware of the fun, experimental aspect of his work; back at that 2002 launch, he teased those human jocks concerned about imminent robot revolution. “We’re trying to make human DJs obsolete as far as possible” he semi-joked. “They’re expensive; they’re unreliable.”
Csikszentmihalyi will tell you that robots aren’t likely to be on the nightclub bill for a few decades yet, but the radical advances do keep coming. Just under five years ago German industrial robot manufacturer Kuka launched Juke Bot, a pair of synchronised robot devices able to grasp vinyl, move it onto a number of surrounding turntables and mix. Appropriately, perhaps, Juke Bot’s preferred sound is industrial techno and, again, the device has been touring extensively, learning how to perform more effectively and provoking dizzy commentary on the future of clubland.
Jukebots in action
“It’s definitely coming” says Ali Schwarz, one half of pioneering German house duo Tiefschwarz. “I keep hearing about all these radical futuristic developments. Novelty they may be but they’re the first real step towards something concrete. It’s the same with video games like DJ Hero; it’s a baby step. At the end of the day, though, it’s bullshit. You can’t worry about this kind of thing; you need to worry about what you’re bringing to the DJ booth – what unique records, what sounds, what style you have. Make sure you stand out and you’ll ensure your survival.”
Last year, Swiss group OZWE developed ‘next generation music-playing’ robot QB1 – a ‘bot’ aware of its surroundings in 3D, able to recognise faces and pictures, and quick to interpret gestures. On one level, simple hand gestures will prompt QB1 to rewind or fast forward tracks; but on another more exciting one, it will effectively read your mood and do everything from crank up the volume to change the style of groove. Perhaps cyborg DJs aren’t so far away?
Human interaction with the QB1
Circus head honcho DJ Yousef is anything but concerned: “Robots might be able to fold towels super-fast but they can’t learn to DJ. Sure, they might learn to select records, mix and even analyse the mood of the dancefloor but there’s no programming 20 years of experience as a human DJ; the unpredictable things, the beautiful mistakes, the sheer enjoyment.”
It might not be robots we need to worry about, according to Ravi Khanna, music researcher at leading international trend forecaster, The Future Laboratory. Technology is, in general, rapidly eroding more and more of the human element of DJing. “Music blogger Gerd Leonhard summed it up when he coined the phrase ‘music like water’,” Khanna explains. “People can interact with music in so many ways now, thanks to technology. Anyone can DJ, anyone can access any track whenever they want it; people no longer have CD libraries at home, and traditional record shops, with all their exclusive rarities, have disappeared. It’s far easier for technology to embrace and control music when it has become so uniform and depersonalised.”
Today, that technology varies from sophisticated iPhone apps and ‘grid controller’ DJ systems to revolutionary ‘5-D’ dancefloors; the relationship between DJ and audience has never been so easy and automatic. “Grid controllers are replacing turntable-based systems in many clubs; everything hooks into them - beat-matching software, sampling equipment, your record collection… a DJ doesn’t have to do as much” Khanna argues. “Elsewhere groups like United Visual Artists are throwing amazing club nights based on a 5-D sensory surround set-up which picks up movement on the dancefloor and alters the music accordingly. There is still a DJ but he has a really passive role.”
Ali Schwarz, who is soon to release Tiefschwarz’s deep third album Chocolate, with brother Sebastian agrees that the role of DJs is likely to become an increasingly reactive one: “We just don’t know what DJing will be like in the future but, soon, I can imagine clubs with satellite-linked hard-drives that DJs send music files to ahead of their sets, log in to when they arrive and then rely on to arrange the perfect tracklist based on night, type of crowd and time of evening. The challenge, as I say, will be for DJs to work out ways of making themselves count.”
Dean Driscoll at super-club matter, London has the final, optimistic word: “Without the human element of performance, there is no performance. The whole of dance music culture is focused on the expression of personality through music and technology; take the personality out, and there’s nothing there for people to engage with. Without having even the most basic grasp of the complexities of human emotion and memory, there’s no way a machine can interact with dancefloors in the way that, say, Sasha or Dennis Ferrer can.”
Dennis Ferrer @ matter
His, ultimately, is a decisive, life-affirming conclusion - technology will never be able to replicate the raw and indefinable adrenaline rush of a human DJ bang on his game. Nevertheless, make no bones, technology is advancing more quickly than ever, and DJs will need to remain ‘bang on’ if they’re going to secure a place in the future clubland order.
Tiefschwarz release new album Chocolate on Souvenir Music on May 28.
Yousef releases new singles on Harthouse, Cocoon and Saved in the coming weeks.
