Google is always coming up with a variety of techy entertainment and experiments for the world. One example is its Google Arts and Culture — a non-commercial initiative in which Google works with cultural institutions and artists around the world.
Although not recent, but still new is Blob Opera — a machine learning experiment created by artist David Li that lets you create your own festive song inspired by opera on Google Arts & Culture, with the help of four different colourful blobs who have all been programmed to sing together in a perfect four-part harmony.
At first, Blob Opera doesn’t make any sense to me until I visited the site and experimented myself with the blobs! I must say it was super amazing!
So at the home page of Blob Opera, you will be asked to launch experiment. As you launch, you will be surprised to see a blob, wobbling and moving as if in real, but with tiny eyes and a duck mouth.
You are given little instructions as what to do next. Drag the blob up and down, move it right or left, as it continuously wobbles and keeps singing and then suddenly other blob drops, then another and finally the fourth one — all having different colours.
Basically, your curser works as a guide for these opera singers to create different sounds. Simply dragging a blob up and down can change its pitch, while moving it side-to-side produces a range of vowel sounds. At the same time, all the other blobs will also harmonise with this voice, responding in real-time to any new directions.
Moreover, you can take your little opera singers on tour across the world and listen to them sing traditional, classic songs from the options given at the right side of the screen. You can mute any blob you like, or record your own created tune. You can share recordings with the link provided on various social media sites along with Google Classroom.
Have fun with the little opera singers at www.googleartsandculture/BlobOpera Or https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/blob-opera/AAHWrq360NcGbw?cp=e30.
Published in Dawn, Young World, June 18th, 2022
