MR-808

In the organizer's words:

Opera

Drum-Robot-Installation by Moritz Simon Geist
without language

Moritz Simon Geist is a sound artist and inventor at the interface of electronic music, robotics and performance. With his self-developed robotic instruments, he makes visible how electronic music is physically created - mechanically, tangibly and in real time, as in the MR-808 installation, an oversized drum robot that can be programmed live by the audience. The project is inspired by the legendary Roland TR-808 from 1980, whose unmistakable sound shaped acts and bands such as Afrika Bambaataa, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy and later Jeff Mills and Aphex Twin - and thus became a cornerstone of hip-hop and techno. In contrast to the electronic original, however, MR-808 works purely mechanically: motors, mallets and real striking surfaces generate the beats visibly in the room. In a collaborative process, the audience programs the drum robot together and directly experiences how rhythms are created. Standing directly in front of the machine, you compose in real time and become part of the performance yourself. On Tue, 23.06.2026, 17.00, Moritz Simon Geist will open the installation and reveal how to elicit the most sophisticated sounds from it. In cooperation with the Technoseum. This content has been machine translated.