ModBots

ModBots are miniature, modular, MIDI-controlled INSTRUMENTS designed to affix to virtually any structure, affording a composer or performer MusicAL control of a variety of surfaces or objects.These modular instruments were developed, designed, and first implemented by composer Bil Bowen and made their debut in a sound-installation entitled "Invitation to the Ionosphere," produced by The Aires Project Inc. (of which Bowen is a founding member) at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on September 26, 2003. In this early installation, Bowen used them to--in effect-- play the interior architecture of a synagogue built in 1849 on the Lower East Side of New York City.

Since 2003, Bowen has continued to develop these modular instruments, which now perform a wide range of precise musical actions; they can be used to hammer, shake, scrape, bow, spin, or pluck sound from any sonorus object with accuracy, flexibility, and great control. In 2005, Bowen implemented many of these instruments in an installation entitled "When the Timetraveller Kills Their Grandmother - a manifestation of Soundart and noiselove in step with the current flow of cultural delusionism" at Alma Enterprises in London.

One of Bowen's most versatile instruments can hammer objects loudly or softly with a speed and consistency unavailable to human percussionists. Another, applies metal to a round surface, generating a numinous ringing sound. One scrapes the sides of springs lightly stretched AbOUT a resonator. Still another pulls a set of jingles back and forth, allowing for precise control of tambourine-like shaking sounds. Finally, one consists of an eccentrically loaded motor which, when activated, shakes at frequencies too fast to be rhythmic and too slow to be a pitch.

These modular instruments have merged MIDI technology with elegant, mechanical design to transform synagogue stairwells, steel-hulled ships, and metal sculptures into musical instruments.