Music robots meet the Zapp Band in Patrick Flanagan’s Jazari, caught here at TEDx Grand Rapids:

Patrick Flanagan serves as the token human in the cyborg percussion ensemble Jazari, which fuses African rhythms, algorithmic composition, computer music, and electro-mechanics into beat-driven steamfunk.

Before he began soldering circuits together, Patrick studied composition at Columbia University and the University of Minnesota.

After performing with Jazari, Flanagan discusses  cyborg musicianship and the machines and technology behind his band.

Flanagan notes that “his biggest influences are the chin-stroking disciplines of music theory, music cognition, and machine learning,” adding that “these academic fields can grow new vocabularies and tools for fashioning an improbable but weirdly intuitive musical future.”

For a deeper look at Flanagan’s controller, robot instruments, his approach to gestural control and ‘artificial stupidity’, check out the behind the scenes video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pOQ2sde98k