Google Arts & Culture Lab once again combines strange animals with classical music in a new digital performing arts experiment centered on birds.
Viola the Bird by David li – Google Arts & Culture experiment | Crazy bird playing the viola
Blob Opera creator David Li is back with a new concept: what if a bird played the cello? The result is Viola the Bird, an AI-trained program that converts cursor movements into violin and cello notes to generate real-time music with a floofy bird on the strings.
Li worked with a number of other artists and musicians to bring Viola to life virtually. These included Zhivko Georgiev, Elizabeth Goble, Ashok Klouda, Dave Larkin, and Peter Wilson (cello and violin), and Martin Batchelar and Charles Mauleverer (arrangement). They all worked together to train a neural network on musical compositions as played by both the cello and violin. That network was then used to create an “audio synthesis engine” that creates musical notes as you drag your mouse cursor left and right on the screen.
Dragging the cursor also moves Viola around, using her head to push and pull the cello bow. How fast or slow you move the cursor affects how long or fast the notes are, and while it’s not possible to “lose” while playing, different speeds can lead to interesting results.
