Pre-Show (Google I/O ’21) – Tune-Yards x Blob Opera

Watch Tune-Yards open I/O with Blob Opera – a musical machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture. Opera singers use their voices as expressive and beautiful musical instruments. Blob Opera pays tribute to those voices, as musical instruments anyone can learn how to play. No singing skills required! How it works David and team collaborated with four opera singers to teach a machine learning model how to sing. Tenor, Christian Joel, bass Frederick Tong, mezzo-soprano Joanna Gamble and soprano Olivia Doutney recorded 16 hours of singing to train the algorithm.

In the experiment you don’t hear their voices, but the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like, based on what it learnt from them. Blob Opera – on tour You’ve seen the blobs do their thing at I/O, now you can take them on tour. Take the blobs to cities around the world, and find inspiration in the music and landmarks of London, New York, Mexico City, Seoul, Agra, Cape Town, and Paris. Google Arts & Culture Discover the inspirational moments, iconic people, and artistic wonders that are available at the tip of your fingers.

Google Arts & Culture allows you to immerse yourself in culture with 360 views, zoom in to reveal the secrets of a masterpiece, take behind the scenes tours of palaces and museums, watch kids explain famous paintings to art experts, and so much more.

Art changes the way we see the world and the way we see each other, so we invite you to come and expand your horizons with us.