Talk: Techno, Art and Music Robots

German artist–engineer Moritz Simon Geist builds robotic instruments to play electronic music with robots. Known for his viral artworks like “Popcorn Jazz Robot” and the MR-808 drum robot, he shows how machines make sound (and why they probably won’t replace human musicians anytime soon).

SUMMARY

Moritz Simon Geist is a German artist and robotics engineer whose kinetic instruments turn electronic music into moving machines—letting audiences see sound being built in real time. His viral works (including the “Popcorn Jazz Robot” and the large-scale MR-808 drum robot) have toured internationally across museums and festivals, showcasing a playful but rigorous blend of design and engineering. In this talk, Geist opens his studio doors to share how he left university semiconductor research, began collaborating with robots, and carved a path in the art world. Expect compact live demos, behind-the-scenes design stories (3D printing, CNC, laser cutting), and hard-won lessons from touring robotic instruments. He’ll also unpack how sensing, mapping, and actuation become music, touch on the challenge of percussion vs. tonal robots, and offer a grounded look at AI + music robotics—what’s possible today, what isn’t, and why human performers still matter.

Bio

Moritz Simon Geist is a music producer, researcher, and robotics engineer from Germany. After beginning a PhD in semiconductor sciences, he shifted to art and now builds robotic instruments that generate sound mechanically. His early work, the MR-808 drum robot (2012), went viral and led to international exhibitions and concerts. Subsequent projects—including the “Popcorn Jazz Robot”, Tripods 1, and the attention-reactive installation Don’t Look at Me—explore how design, algorithms, and mechatronics can produce electronic music in real space. Geist runs a studio in Dresden, fabricating instruments with 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser cutting, and researching the emotional dynamics between audiences and non-human performers.