Looking Outwards 10- Alice Cai

What do machines sing of?

“And I will always love you…” 
This sound art by Martin Backes blurs the lines of AI and humans but at the same time makes it all the more clear. Martin Backs feeds a computed system number-one ballads from 1990, and all of them are extremely EMOTIONAL songs. He has the computer reproduce the song with its own “emotional interpretations”. The machine attempts to replicate the human sentiment in the original song. While I listen to the machine, I can hear what seems to be crescendos and decrescendos as well as vibratos in the notes. However, it is glitchy and very clearly electronically made. You can tell that code is constantly running during the song.
The code is calculating current pitch, found pitch, frequency, and loudness. 



I find this project extremely intriguing because I was actually very impressed with the replication of the song by the machine. However, because of the clear distinctions and flaws in the replication, it also reassures me that human emotion is the one thing that cannot be replaced by electronics.

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