The DJ as a new type of artist spawned during the waning second half of the 20. century will possibly defend his position in the creative business for some years to come. But in the end, he is utilising machines, which themselves reproduce sounds, which in turn have already for the most part been re-produced by other machines. The individual, creative work of the DJ is more and more reduced to a mere assertion. Furthermore, digitalisation and user-friendly software are causing an inflation of musical mass-creativity, additionally weakening the DJ-myth.

A situation designed to provoke artistic reaction. Recent years have seen a variety of artistic programs for sound generation as well as the DJ-I-Robot by Chris Csikszentmihályi. Juke_bots feature two industrial robots, taking on the role of the DJ. With distinctive precision they choose one of a surrounding selection of records and in playful interaction, using various scratch-modi, produce a multitude of sound compositions. There are only few possibilities to direct the play of the machines. A simple interface enables the visitor to influence the robots’ choreography and their soundsampling.

The spatial presence of these two machines and the simple beauty of their synchronised, precise movements hold a very strange fascination – a fascination which has surfaced again and again ever since Fritz Lang first presented his Metropolis, colliding with our very own experience of virtual data-spaces and decidedly limiting our desire for interactivity. Insofar juke_bots, also, or particularly, can be viewed as a performance, executing a pre-set program.