Here “he” is, Shimon – The Improvising Robotic Musician from Georgia Tech. Shimon is the creation of Gil Weinberg, Guy Hoffman and Ryan Nikolaidis of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, and Roberto Aimi of Alium Labs. They programmed Shimon to listen to, recognize, play, and improvise jazz music. Not only can Shimon play music, but he is also a fully animated simulation of a marimba player and can actually respond to his environment, right down to bobbing his “head” and “feeling” the music. Shimon is an exciting addition to Sounds Human, part of Bumbershoot’s 2010 Visual Arts Program. Sounds Human investigates the many ways that developments in art, technology, and their intersections have resulted in new expressions of sound. In addition to Shimon, this exhibit features interactive sculpture, video, and two-dimensional works exploring these themes by renowned artists and innovators such as Trimpin, Hugo Solis, Victoria Haven, Erika Simmons, Ariane Michel, Signal to Noise, and Paul Rucker.

Sounds Human is made possible in part by 911 Media Arts Center with funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Shimon has even made his way to the Colbert Report - you can watch the clip here.