The Music, Perception and Robotics Lab explores how musical creativity can be inspired and enhanced by technological tools and understanding of human auditory perception. We build robotic and mechatronic systems in order to explore expressive spaces that unique to machines, unique to humans, and are shared between the two. We conduct psychological research that examines human musical perception and creativity. We synthesize these efforts in projects where humans and machines interact in the context of art and psychological research to inspire and augment creativity and expressivity. As we embody and encode characteristics that we value, we recognize our technological and artistic experiments as fundamentally humanistic endeavors.

Parthenope

a robotic musical siren

Whamola

a robotic bass monochord that tunes by adjusting string tension

Cyther

a human-playable robotic zither

PVC Aerophone

an automatic open-tube aerophone

Modular Percussion

automatic modular percussion instruments

Harmonium

an automated harmonium

Recorder

an automatic recorder

Glocky

an automatic glockenspiel

Publications

S. Barton (2020). Circularity in Rhythmic Representation and Composition. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Birmingham City University, pp. 505–508.

M. Sidler, M. Bisson, J. Grotz, and S. Barton (2020). Parthenope: A Robotic Musical Siren. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Birmingham City University, pp. 297–300.

K. Sundberg, S. Barton, A. Walter, T. Sane, L. Baker, A. O’Brien (2018). A Robotic Percussive Aerophone. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). Blacksburg, VA.

P. Mitrano, A. Lockman, J. Honicker, S. Barton (2017). Using Recurrent Neural Networks to Judge Fitness in Musical Genetic Algorithms. In proceedings of The 5th International Workshop on Musical Metacreation (MUME) at The 8th International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC). Atlanta, GA, USA.

S. Barton, E. Prihar, P. Carvalho (2017). Cyther: a human-playable, self-tuning robotic zither. In proceedings of The 17^th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Copenhagen, Denmark.

S. Barton (2016). Creativity in the Generation of Machine Rhythms. In proceedings from The 1^st Conference on Computer Simulation of Musical Creativity. Huddersfield, UK.

S. Barton (2013).  The human, the mechanical, and the spaces in between: explorations in human-robotic musical improvisation.  In proceedings from the Ninth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference. Boston, Massachusetts.

We conduct research on auditory and musical perception and cognition, with particular focus on rhythm and time. This research purports to both help us better understand our tendencies and inspire our creativity in the generation of technologies and works of art.

Publications

S. Barton, L. Getz, & M. Kubovy (2017). Systematic Variation in Rhythm Production as Tempo Changes. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 34(3), 303-312. 

C. M. Tolleson, D. Dobolyi, O. C. Roman, K. Kanoff, S. Barton, S. A. Wylie, M. Kubovy, D. O. Claassen (2015). Dysrhythmia of timed Movements in Parkinson’s disease and freezing of gait. Brain Research; Volume 1624, October 2015.

L.M. Getz, S. Barton, M. Kubovy (2014). The Specificity of Expertise: for whom is the Clave Pattern the “Key” to Salsa Music? Acta Psychologica; Volume 152, October 2014. (Acceptance rate 21-30%)

C.M. Tolleson, S.A. Wylie, O.C. Roman, S. Barton, M. Kubovy, D. Claassen (2013). Motor timing in Parkinson’s disease patients who freeze. Movement Disorders; Volume 28, June 2013.