At the Korperwende exhibit (March 13-May 5, 2019) held at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf, the Alter 3 android, the world’s first to implement the ALIFE Engine™, a dynamics generation software engine developed by Alternative Machine Inc., was shown to the public.

In addition, at the “Hi, Robot! Mensch Maschine Festival,” held at the Robert-Schumann-Saal in connection with the above exhibit, the opening ceremony featured the Scary Beauty android opera by Alter 3, its first overseas debut.

Going forward, the Scary Beauty android opera performed by Alter 3 is slated to go on a traveling tour around the world. In August 2020, the opera will be held as a special performance at the New National Theatre Tokyo. The android will also appear in a new opera jointly produced by conductor Kazushi Ono, author Masahiko Shimada, and Musician Keiichiro Shibuya.

Scary Beauty, the android opera

This performance was first shown at The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation as part of ALIFE 2018 (the International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems) held on July 22, 2018. Scary Beauty is the world’s first android opera. An android conducts a human orchestra of about thirty people, and also sings. The music was composed by Keiichiro Shibuya, who also performs on the piano.

The NRW-Forum explained

This is an international exhibit center focusing on the theme of digital culture.

Direction & programming: Takashi Ikegami research laboratory (University of Tokyo)
Hardware: A-lab, Kohei Ogawa, Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University)
Software Architecture Design & Programming: Itsuki Doi, Takashi Ikegami (University of Tokyo), Atsushi Masumori, and Norihiro Maruyama (Alternative Machine Inc.)
Alter3 Simulator: mixi Inc.