Listen to a Conrad Shawcross podcast on machines, music and Ada Lovelace

Written by

Amar Ediriwira

Published on

October 13, 2014

Features

For Machine Music Week, Conrad Shawcross spoke to us about The ADA Project, which features four limited edition vinyl records and a robotic installation that is now open to the public.

For Conrad Shawcross’s ADA Project, four renowned female artists were asked to create compositions in response to a robot, programmed and hacked by the London-based artist himself. The idea was to reverse the traditional commissioning process – rather than a machine responding to music, here the machine is the primary source of inspiration. Each musician spent one week with his robot, Ada, who dances and moves according to ratios and numbers associated with Ada Lovelace, the 19th C. female mathematician credited with the first computer programme. The result is a unique, collaborative artwork consisting of four robotic choreographies, each with an intrinsically connected composition.

We invited Shawcross to talked us through The Ada Project. Have a listen below:

To coincide with Ada Lovelace day which takes place tomorrow, The ADA project launched on Friday and is now open to all free of charge.

Until the end of October, Shawcross’ robot will reside on the top floor of The Vinyl Factory’s Brewer Street Car Park, dancing on request for the public. Using a jukebox-like device, visitors will be able to select to play the four robot dances and associated compositions, which include works by Holly Herndon and Mira Calix. The four works have also been released on laser-etched, limited edition vinyl this week for those interested in adding Ada to their collection.

Shawcross attended the launch to explain his project in detail, as did the musicians involved, and of course Brewer Street Car Park’s newest resident, Ada the robot, was there too. Have a look at photos below, and scroll down for full details on how to visit The ADA Project.