The first song performed by a computer inspired ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
From the horror of Fritz Lang’s Maschinenmensch and HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey to the furore surrounding Deep Blue, the computer that beat chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in 1996: we’ve long been preoccupied with the thought of machines usurping us.
That anxiety is made all the more pronounced when we hear of computers succeeding in realms where once only humans could excel. Art, literature and even music are no longer regarded as examples of the human mind’s transcendent creativity – how could they be when computers can write books, create mind-bending art and sing songs?
Graphic 1 was developed by William Ninke (with the help of Carl Christensen and Henry S. McDonald) at Bell laboratory in the early 1960s. It was an early forerunner of the software used in DAWs like Ableton and Cubase, in which the user can use a stylus tool to add numeric note values. It also allows the user to insert pictures and graphs into the computer memory simply by drawing such objects on the screen. These pictures can then be modified, erased and duplicated.
Some engineers used the tool to see if computers could be programmed to recite words in English. In a video that can be found at the bottom of this article, for example, one of the Graphic 1 team can be seen using the program to change the intonation of a digitised version of the word ‘nice’.
Developments in speech synthesis eventually allowed engineers to program a computer to sing ‘Daisy Bell’ in 1961. The song was originally recorded and released on wax cylinder by Dan W. Quinn in 1893 and features the memorable line: “Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer, do! / I’m half crazy, All for the love of you!” In 1962, a science fiction author called Arthur C. Clarke visited Bell labs and witnessed the IBM 704 ‘Daisy Bell’ demonstration, which he eventually worked into his 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey – later adapted by Stanley Kubrick.
The song is sung by HAL 9000 as his memory core begins to degrade, and he starts releasing information programmed in his early life. Like his sci-fi contemporary Phillip K. Dick, Clarke was fascinated with the idea that, one day, computers would be indistinguishable from humans; that they would be able to accomplish even the most creative acts.
With Graphic 1 the possibility that humans would one day live alongside sentient machines was given new life.
