al.: ”iltur” - Connecting Novices and Experts Through Collaborative Improvisation”,NIME

The iltur system features a novel method of interaction between expert and novice musicians through a set of musical controllers called Beatbugs. Beatbug players can record live musical input from MIDI and acoustic instruments and respond by transforming the recorded material in real-time, creating motif-and-variation call-and-response routines on the fly. A central computer system analyzes MIDI and audio played by expert players and allows novice Beatbug players to personalize the analyzed material using a variety of transformation algorithms. This paper presents the motivation for developing the iltur system, followed by a brief survey of pervious and related work that guided the definition of the project’s goals. We then present the hardware and software approaches that were taken to address these goals, as well as a couple of compositions that were written for the system. The paper ends with a discussion based on observations of players using the iltur system and a number of suggestions for future work

Paradoxes of interactivity: perspectives for media theory, human-computer interaction, and artistic investigations

Current findings from anthropology, genetics, prehistory, cognitive and neuroscience indicate that human nature is grounded in a co-evolution of tool use, symbolic communication, social interaction and cultural transmission. Digital information technology has recently entered as a new tool in this co-evolution, and will probably have the strongest impact on shaping the human mind in the near future. A common effort from the humanities, the sciences, art and technology is necessary to understand this ongoing co- evolutionary process. Interactivity is a key for understanding the new relationships formed by humans with social robots as well as interactive environments and wearables underlying this process. Of special importance for understanding interactivity are human-computer and human-robot interaction, as well as media theory and New Media Art. "Paradoxes of Interactivity" brings together reflections on "interactivity" from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay of science and art, and recent technological developments for artistic applications, especially in the realm of sound

Paradoxes of Interactivity

Current findings from anthropology, genetics, prehistory, cognitive and neuroscience indicate that human nature is grounded in a co-evolution of tool use, symbolic communication, social interaction and cultural transmission. Digital information technology has recently entered as a new tool in this co-evolution, and will probably have the strongest impact on shaping the human mind in the near future. A common effort from the humanities, the sciences, art and technology is necessary to understand this ongoing co- evolutionary process. Interactivity is a key for understanding the new relationships formed by humans with social robots as well as interactive environments and wearables underlying this process. Of special importance for understanding interactivity are human-computer and human-robot interaction, as well as media theory and New Media Art. »Paradoxes of Interactivity« brings together reflections on »interactivity« from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay of science and art, and recent technological developments for artistic applications, especially in the realm of sound