AI and pianist Danilo Rea improvise together at Romaeuropa Festival

On December 2, 2017, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, the closing day of the Romaeuropa Festival featured "Cracking Danilo Rea," a live performance where an artificial intelligence interacted with pianist Danilo Rea and artist Alex Braga. The AI, developed with the University of Roma Tre's Engineering Department, captured Rea's piano sounds in real time, predicted his improvisations, and sent up to 15 different impulse predictions to Braga, who orchestrated them into a unique sonic architecture. The event was part of the Digitalife 2017 exhibition and marked the launch of the Fondazione Romaeuropa's research department on the future of human-machine relationships. Earlier in the day, a conference titled "Where are we now? Contemporary references for the exploration of the future" featured Australian performer Stelarc—honorary professor of art and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University and winner of the Ars Electronica Hybrid Arts Prize—and Professor Massimo Bergamasco from Scuola Sant'Anna di Pisa. Braga stated that the AI does not create but merely executes, and that the performance represents the first time an AI has been used to anticipate and respond to a live pianist. Visual artist Paolo Scoppola contributed generative graphics software that responded to the AI. Rea described the trio of himself, Braga, and the AI as a new musical instrument producing a sophisticated yet fragile electronic music that breaks free from traditional grids and patterns.