This Machine Kills Fascists


OCAD University is pleased to present This Machine Kills Fascists, a robot performance with visiting guests Troy Richards, Ashley Pigford, and Dustyn Roberts.

 
DateThursday, April 27, 2017 - 12:00pm to 7:30pm

Cost

FREE

Location

Graduate Gallery, ground floor, 205 Richmond Street West

Gallery hours: April 27, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Performance: 5 p.m.

Reception: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
 

This project is a collaboration between artist Troy Richards, designer Ashley Pigford, and engineer Dustyn Roberts. Inspired by a statement written on Woody Guthrie’s guitar This Machine Kills Fascists (TMKF) is a guitar playing robot that performs traditional American folk music on a portable stage. Sheet music with the song lyrics are printed and left on the benches set up in front of the stage and audience members will be encouraged to sing along to the music. 

“How can we come together in ways that express a shared experience of community and mutual sympathy? Our music, much like our lived experience, is filtered through technology and is often isolating. TMKF presents a kind of homespun spectacle that can draw the attention of a skeptical public and entice to come together and learn/sing these songs that are woven into our collective DNA.

TMKF is very high tech and low-tech, combining the analog tradition of folk music and digital technology of robotics. Our project is inherently positive and seeks to bring people together through music. It uses a strategy of generating empathy and goodwill with an artificial intelligence to make us ask questions of the kind of community we may or may not be making with actual humans. With TMKF we hope to create a compelling experience that starts conversations.”

This event is free and open to the public.



illustration of robot playing guitar - exhibition poster
DateThursday, April 27, 2017 - 12:00pm to 7:30pm

Cost

FREE

Website Location

Graduate Gallery, ground floor, 205 Richmond Street West

photo of guitar machine robot
Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 12:00pm to 7:30pm

Gallery hours: April 27, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Performance: 5 p.m.

Reception: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
 

This project is a collaboration between artist Troy Richards, designer Ashley Pigford, and engineer Dustyn Roberts. Inspired by a statement written on Woody Guthrie’s guitar This Machine Kills Fascists (TMKF) is a guitar playing robot that performs traditional American folk music on a portable stage. Sheet music with the song lyrics are printed and left on the benches set up in front of the stage and audience members will be encouraged to sing along to the music. 

“How can we come together in ways that express a shared experience of community and mutual sympathy? Our music, much like our lived experience, is filtered through technology and is often isolating. TMKF presents a kind of homespun spectacle that can draw the attention of a skeptical public and entice to come together and learn/sing these songs that are woven into our collective DNA.

TMKF is very high tech and low-tech, combining the analog tradition of folk music and digital technology of robotics. Our project is inherently positive and seeks to bring people together through music. It uses a strategy of generating empathy and goodwill with an artificial intelligence to make us ask questions of the kind of community we may or may not be making with actual humans. With TMKF we hope to create a compelling experience that starts conversations.”

This event is free and open to the public.

Venue & Address: 
Graduate Gallery, ground floor, 205 Richmond Street West
Cost: 
FREE
illustration of robot playing guitar - exhibition poster
Keywords: 
Ignite Imagination - The Campaign for OCAD U

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