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This Robotic Guitar Looks Nothing Like a Robot or a Guitar (But It Still Shreds)

A special rebroadcast of episode four of season one of Sound Builders, our show about noise.

We've been running a special rebroadcast of the first season of Sound Builders, our show about noise (and the people rethinking how to make it), all week on Motherboard. We hope it tides you over until the forthcoming season of Sound Builders, which you can catch here later this month.

First, here's the robo-stylings of Eric Singer, a musician and founder of both The League of Electronic Music Urban Robots (LEMUR) and The Madagascar Institute, a Brooklyn-based collaborative arts project. Singer has previously sonified fire, balls of slime, and other far-flung organic matter. But in 2010, when we visited Singer in his basement workshop in Pittsburgh, he showed us some of his new MIDI-based robotic instruments.

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Among other things, he gave us a demo of a robot guitar he'd been working on. Naturally, it looked nothing like a guitar or a robot. But it still shreds.

"Soon robots will take over and rule the world, and this is my way of getting on their good side first," Singer told us. "Don't kill him, he's in the band."

Stay tuned for the premiere of our next season of Sound Builders right here on Motherboard.

More from Sound Builders:

Meet Reed Ghazala, the Father of Circuit Bending

Watch Sound Designer Diego Stocco Build a 'Mad Max'-Style Bass With Pipes

Watch Psych-Pop Duo Peaking Lights Make Sound Waves With Recycled Electronics