Confusion, disbelief, astonishment, fascination and a dash of repugnance. These were the major feelings I experienced while following the presentation of one of our fellow students who introduced a flute playing robot to his bright-eyed audience. WF-4R II, as the flute robot is officially known at its birthplace – the Waseda University located in Tokyo – dynamically performed the ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ in an illustrative video. Despite my initial fascination for the scientists’ achievement, I could not help but recognize a (slight?) difference between the human flute player’s performance, which we had listened to beforehand, and the anthropomorphous creature’s way of playing. Equally, the subsequent discussion also came to the conclusion that, regardless of the robots flawless performance, the auditory experience when listening to James Galway did inherit and convey a more intense emotional experience.
