Exploring the Self Through Algorithmic Composition (original) (raw)
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Music Composition and Performance in Interactive Computer/Human Systems
2004
This paper explores a dialogue between art and technology in the fields of interactive art,interface design and interactive music. These fields create a frame in which I present mycreative project Ephemeral Gumboots, a hybrid media artwork/musical instrument that takes South African Gumboot dance and extends it as an interface into an electronic music-making system. The notion of interactivity, its history, development, social meaning and the technology that has enabled it become objects for interrogation. The concept of process, which is at the heart of interactive art and music, is also located philosophically and historically. Essential (Cagean) considerations surface too: whether music is an art form; and how composition relates to music. A socio- political milieu is constructed in which to locate the work: Ephemeral Gumboots is presented via description, analysis, and as poetry. The modified boots are explained from an electronic music/ instrument design point of view, and a dialectic is set up between the technical existence of the work and the philosophical questions it asks. These questions are(intuitively) presented in a metaphorical creative writing style as intimate fragments of the artist’s imagination. Meaning is touched upon, but left open-ended and ephemeral.Lastly, there is a practical attempt to put a technical description of the work into laymen’s terms, with the invitation to other composers and dancers to use the system for further creative exploration. Special attention is given to instrument design (which is an integral part of the process of composition in this context) and the organisation of material.
From idea to realization-understanding the compositional processes of electronic musicians
2009
This paper presents a study of the compositional process of creating electronic music. 18 electronic musicians were interviewed with focus on discussing their compositional approach, how ideas were realized, and how musical tools were utilized throughout the process. Results show that the process changes significantly from the beginning of the compositional process to the end. Freedom and control are not always keywords for designing successful musical tools. Participants reported that many creative ideas arise by not being fully in control, not being able to predict the outcome, or restricting or deliberately creating challenges for ones-self.
Experiencing Musical Composition In The DAW: The Software Interface As Mediator Of The Musical Idea
2011
My paper discusses the effect of the DAW environment upon student attitudes to musical composition with reference to pedagogical research that I have conducted over the past two years at Leeds College of Music. I focus in particular upon nature of the graphical interfaces provided by certain DAW platforms, considering their relationship with the 'traditional' media they are often modeled upon, and their impact upon the conceptualization of musical ideas. Much of the discussion is focused upon the musical thought processes that users of DAWs bring a priori to their chosen platform and how contact with the software both modifies these ideas and impacts upon creative flow. The issues arising from the paper have interesting implications for ideologies of composition teaching per se and aim to raise debate in regard to the special challenge presented by new technologies to received ideas in this area.
Paradigms of Music Software Interface Design and Musical Creativity
Innovation in Music II (KES Transactions on Innovation in Music), 2016
Building on previous studies I have undertaken in the educational context, this paper offers observations arising from my ongoing research into attitudes and approaches towards music creation engendered by digital tools. The primary focus is on evaluating paradigms of software interface design (with a particular focus on the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and attendant third party plugins), ranging from the virtual environment scenario in which hardware tools are painstakingly modeled to imitate the real world of studio production, to interfaces which are rather more abstract in their visual structures, often encouraging the musician to think in terms low level computer process. The user’s capacity to negotiate the constraints of the tool and assimilate its particular language is of importance in either case, whether engaging with visual metaphors for familiar technologies in terms of their real-world practical application or learning system-specific languages which constitute the building blocks of musical processes that are highly determined. The question concerning the extent of the software interface’s propensity to shape aspects of musical detail, structure and style is at the heart of this discussion and is considered with reference to established theories of creativity (especially Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘systems’ theory).
Designing constraints: Composing and performing with digital musical systems
Computer Music Journal, 2010
This paper investigates two central terms in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) – affordances and constraints – and studies their relevance to the design and understanding of digital musical systems. It argues that in the analysis of complex systems, such as new interfaces for musical expression (NIME), constraints are a more productive analytical tool than the common HCI usage of affordances. Constraints are seen as limitations enabling the musician to encapsulate a specific search space of both physical and compositional gestures, proscribing complexity in favor of a relatively simple set of rules that engender creativity. By exploring the design of three different digital musical systems, the paper defines constraints as a core attribute of mapping, whether in instruments or compositional systems. The paper describes the aspiration for designing constraints as twofold: to save time, as musical performance is typically a real-time process, and to minimize the performer’s cognitive load. Finally, it discusses skill and virtuosity in the realm of new musical interfaces for musical expression with regard to constraints.
This paper discusses computer aided and automated composition/analysis, and related aesthetic understanding. It discusses the program ICIA, prototyped with the Max environment, that integrates: sound analysis systems; sound effecting and manipulation systems; algorithmic composition processes; and gesture recognition systems. ICIA segments sounds selected by the composer/improviser into usable parts and groupings via a user and machine defined stochastic processes. The groupings are represented on a display for manipulation through a variety of compositional processes by the composer/improviser in real time. The sounds that the composer/improviser may use include: the sounds of the environment; sounds previously stored; sounds being generated by ICIA; or any other kind of audible input the composer/improviser chooses. It provides a provocative environment for the composer/improviser by interpreting their physical, sonic, intentional and non-intentional actions and decisions through a set of algorithms that the composer/improviser has varying control over. These algorithms have built into them a ‘degree of predictability’ scale that the composer or machine may set. Terms such as ‘more’ or ‘less’, ‘inside’ or ‘outside’, ‘regular or ‘irregular’ are also used in relation to aspects of the compositional/improvisational process. Using such ‘non-musical’ terms causes the composer/improviser to consider their approach outside of traditional composition systems. Therefore the composer/improviser is provoked to take into account all aspects of their interaction with ICIA in the creation of a sound art/musical artwork, exposing their conscious and unconscious, intentional and non-intentional, aesthetic approaches in the process of creation. Proceedings of Korean Electro-Acoustic Music Society's 2015 Annual Conference (KEAMSAC2015) Seoul, Korea, 2-3 October 2015
The process of creating computer-based music is increasingly being conceived in terms of complex chains of mediations involving composer/performer and computer software interactions that prompt us to reconsider notions of materiality within the context of digital cultures. Recent scholarship has offered particularly useful re-evaluations of computer music software in relation to musical instrumentality. In this article, we contend that given the ubiquitous presence of computer units within contemporary musical practices, it is not simply music software that needs to be reframed as musical instruments, but rather the diverse material strata of machines identified as computers that need to be thought of as instruments within music environments. Specifically, we argue that computers, regardless of their technical specifications, are not only ‘black boxes’ or ‘meta-tools’ that serve to control music software, but are also material objects that are increasingly being used in a wide range of musical and sound art practices according to an ‘analog’ rather than ‘digital’ logic. Through a series of examples implicating both soft and hard dimensions of what constitutes computers, we provide a preliminary survey of practices calling for the need to rethink the conceptual divide between analog and digital forms of creativity and aesthetics.
Composing Instruments: Inventing and Performing with Generative Computer-based Instruments by
2007
This dissertation describes music composition as an act of composing instruments. The building blocks of such instruments are discussed: the fundamentally interdisciplinary approach, the role of gesture, the role of real-time generative software, the mappings between gesture and generative processes, and the interaction between performer and instrument. A real-time performance instrument that was composed to accompany the opera Takemitsu: My Way of Life is described. Key constraints imposed by this project are described, namely: the need for the realtime electronic sound to blend and relate musically to the rest of the music, the need to create a stateless and playable instrument, and the need for an instrument that is robust, adaptable, portable. Design and compositional decisions that address these constraints are proposed and the actual implementation is discussed. As a contrasting example of a composed instrument, a second project is presented: an interactive installation named ...in memory of Leah Deni created in memory of Leah Deni. This project serves as an example of the same compositional interest in instrument building and interactivity, but applied to an installation setting where the performer is the audience member. Connections between the conceptual and technological aspects of the installation are drawn. Finally, a set of software modules for real-time creative work named _aLib is presented. The modules in _aLib (a set of abstractions for the Max/MSP environment) were used extensively in the described instruments and will hopefully make a contribution to the realtime computer performance community. i This dissertation is dedicated to Nakhostin and Reza for their never-ending love and support, and to my mentor David Wessel who has been the most influential and inspirational presence in my recent years.