AI Methods in Algorithmic Composition: A Comprehensive Survey

Algorithmic composition is the partial or total automation of the process of music composition by using computers. Since the 1950s, different computational techniques related to Artificial Intelligence have been used for algorithmic composition, including grammatical representations, probabilistic methods, neural networks, symbolic rule-based systems, constraint programming and evolutionary algorithms. This survey aims to be a comprehensive account of research on algorithmic composition, presenting a thorough view of the field for researchers in Artificial Intelligence.This study was partially supported by a grant for the MELOMICS project (IPT-300000-2010-010) from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and a grant for the CAUCE project (TSI-090302-2011-8) from the Spanish Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio. The first author was supported by a grant for the GENEX project (P09-TIC- 5123) from the Consejería de Innovación y Ciencia de Andalucía

Characterisation in the novel: an aesthetic of the uncanny

The aim o f this dissertation is to devise techniques for characterisation in the novel which eschew the dominant, rational and integrated model o f subjectivity promoted in creative writing discourse. It examines the Freudian uncanny and cognate concepts of the sublime, the abject and ontological confusion which lead readers to hesitation, doubt and misrecognition in the process of ‘reading’ character. The emergence of creative writing degree programs and the popularity of guidebooks on the subject have had a modularising effect on approaches to novel writing: decomposing the process into constituent teachable parts. Within this discourse about novel writing, characterisation has become a chronically fixed element in which received models of the self, drawn from reductionist behavioural psychology, tend to dominate. The dissertation examines the grammar of this modular characterisation and the series of explicit and implicit rules of selection and transformation upon which it is based. It argues that it is necessary for the writer to disidentify with this discourse and re-examine their being-towards-others to achieve one of the primary critical or epistemological goals of the novel: exalting the wisdom of uncertainty with relation to the representation of self and other. Concepts drawn from structuralist and poststructuralist philosophy, social cognition, postmodern literary theory, cognitive science, analytical philosophy and psychology are examined for their usefulness to this creative problem o f eliciting reader reactions of hesitation, misrecognition, ontological confusion and doubt about the nature of the characters. The novel trilogies of Samuel Beckett and Paul Auster are offered as contemporary prototypes of the effect, with their non-referentiation and disorientation effects in characterisation. The “grammar of the uncanny” is then analysed with respect to two important aspects of characterisation: name and character behaviour. Commentary on the approach to characterisation in Monsters Worse to Come is also presented

Music as complex emergent behaviour : an approach to interactive music systems

Access to the full-text thesis is no longer available at the author's request, due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Access removed on 28.11.2016 by CS (TIS).Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/770) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis suggests a new model of human-machine interaction in the domain of non-idiomatic musical improvisation. Musical results are viewed as emergent phenomena issuing from complex internal systems behaviour in relation to input from a single human performer. We investigate the prospect of rewarding interaction whereby a system modifies itself in coherent though non-trivial ways as a result of exposure to a human interactor. In addition, we explore whether such interactions can be sustained over extended time spans. These objectives translate into four criteria for evaluation; maximisation of human influence, blending of human and machine influence in the creation of machine responses, the maintenance of independent machine motivations in order to support machine autonomy and finally, a combination of global emergent behaviour and variable behaviour in the long run. Our implementation is heavily inspired by ideas and engineering approaches from the discipline of Artificial Life. However, we also address a collection of representative existing systems from the field of interactive composing, some of which are implemented using techniques of conventional Artificial Intelligence. All systems serve as a contextual background and comparative framework helping the assessment of the work reported here. This thesis advocates a networked model incorporating functionality for listening, playing and the synthesis of machine motivations. The latter incorporate dynamic relationships instructing the machine to either integrate with a musical context suggested by the human performer or, in contrast, perform as an individual musical character irrespective of context. Techniques of evolutionary computing are used to optimise system components over time. Evolution proceeds based on an implicit fitness measure; the melodic distance between consecutive musical statements made by human and machine in relation to the currently prevailing machine motivation. A substantial number of systematic experiments reveal complex emergent behaviour inside and between the various systems modules. Music scores document how global systems behaviour is rendered into actual musical output. The concluding chapter offers evidence of how the research criteria were accomplished and proposes recommendations for future research

Whole Set of Volume 1 No 1 (2010) of COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Whole Set of Contents of Current Issue (for cross-reference reading and hard-copy preservation of the whole issue

Radiant Imperfection : The Interconnected Writing Lives of Robert Bringhurst, Dennis Lee, Tim Lilburn, Don McKay, and Jan Zwicky

Over the course of the past two decades, Robert Bringhurst, Dennis Lee, Tim Lilburn, Don McKay, and Jan Zwicky have come to be known as a coterie of ecological writers and ethicists. All five poets have inhabited the Canadian university at various points throughout their careers, and by discussing their ecopoetics in light of their commentary on academic epistemologies and contemporary education in the humanities, this dissertation observes how the poets’ respective approaches to aesthetics, philosophy, and pedagogy are intimately intertwined. By contextualizing the group’s ecopoetics in light of their academic interventions, I argue that their public reputations as ecological artists and educators have been established as they have worked to define the borders of their own poetics within and against the territories of the broader academic and literary traditions they inhabit. In this regard, I explore two of the major epistemological traditions that the poets set in contrast to the reading practices of postmodernism – phenomenology, and the via negativa (negative way) – and argue that engaging with their works means continuously renegotiating the age-old question of poetry’s capacity to teach and delight

Sketching music: representation and composition

PhDThe process of musical composition is sometimes conceived of as an individual, internal, cognitive process in which notation plays a passive role of transmitting or recording musical ideas. This thesis questions the role played by representations in musical composition practices. We begin by tracing how, historically, compositional practices have co-evolved with musical representations and technologies for music production. We present case studies to show that the use of graphical sketches is a characteristic feature of the early stages of musical composition and that this practice recurs across musical genres ranging from classical music to contemporary electroacoustic composition. We describe the processes involved in sketching activities within the framework of distributed cognition and distinguish an intermediate representational role for sketches that is different from what is ‘in the head’ of the composer and from the functions of more formal musical notations. Using evidences from the case studies, we argue in particular that as in other creative design processes, sketches provide strategically ambiguous, heterogeneous forms of representation that exploit vagueness, indeterminacy and inconsistency in the development of musical ideas. Building on this analysis of the functions of sketching we describe the design and implementation of a new tool, the Music Sketcher, which attempts to provide more under-specified and flexible forms of ‘sketch’ representation than are possible with contemporary composition tools. This tool is evaluated through a series of case studies which explore how the representations constructed with the tool are interpreted and what role they play in the compositional process. We show that the program provides a similar level of vagueness to pen and paper, while also facilitating re-representation and re-interpretation, thus helping bridge the gap between early representations and later stages of commitment

Writing as dancing: The dancer in your hands , a novella \u3c\u3e

With the premise to ‘write like I dance,’ Writing as dancing investigates new methods of accessing and revealing choreographic thinking in three distinct ways; writing as a soloist, writing for the ensemble and writing responsively in collaboration. Resulting iterations have variously emerged in the form of performance, novella, play, artist-book, exhibition and long form poem; the novella The Dancer in Your Hands, being the primary solo work presented alongside this exegesis. The research posits engagement with solo dance improvisation practice as a dynamically charged, and tangible way of thinking that is transferable to the practice of writing. It draws on the quick shifting associational response systems and states of heightened attention as developed in the response project in my MA (2002). Writing as dancing proposes the activation of the ‘State of Dancingness’ in mobilising the act of writing as the centralisation of embodiment, and investigates the capability of the professional dancing body to reorient the relationship between dancing and the act of writing. This reorientation is discussed through examining fields of performance writing, feminist texts and queer phenomenology to excavate the liminal spaces between disciplines and the unhiding of emergent content. The agency of the dancer as author provokes new publishing platforms and an expanded readership for dance via the publication of embodied texts. She breathes

Audio-scores, a resource for composition and computer-aided performance

This submission investigates computer-aided performances in which musicians receive auditory information via earphones. The interaction between audio-scores (musical material sent through earpieces to performers) and visual input (musical notation) changes the traditional relationship between composer, conductor, performer and listener. Audio-scores intend to complement and transform the printed score. They enhance the accuracy of execution of difficult rhythmic or pitch relationships, increase the specificity of instructions given to the performer (for example, in the domain of timbre), and may elicit original and spontaneous responses from the performer in real-time. The present research is inspired by, and positions itself within traditional European notational practices. Through a reflection on the nature and function of notation in a variety of repertoires, this study examines how my own compositional research – and its reliance on audio-scores— relates to and differs from the models considered. Following the realisation of pieces investigating complex rhythms and the use of recorded samples as borrowed/found material, results have proven to be highly effective with a group of vocalists, with works in which audio-scores facilitated the precise realisation of microtonal material. Audio-scores also proved particularly useful in sitespecific ‘immersive’ concerts/installations. In these settings, audio-scores mitigate challenges associated with placing musicians at an unusual distances from one another, e.g. around the audience. This submission constitutes an original contribution to knowledge in the field of computer-aided performance in that it demonstrates how musical notation and current ubiquitous audio technologies may be used in tandem in the conception and performance of new works. Recent findings include a Web application currently being developed at IRCAM. The application is based on a local server and allows the synchronous delivery of audio/screen-scores via the browser of the performers’ smartphones, tablets, or computers. Keywords: audio-score, click track, composition, computeraided performance, earpiece, microtonality, music, notation, performance, screen-score, server, voice

Dysacademia in the Ivory Towers: Performativity, Discipline, Control & Chaotically Moving Towards the Shadows of the 3Rd Educational Spaces

This theoretical inquiry is based upon an archaeological and genealogical deconstruction of the character, utility and state of being of the modern university in the United States. In introducing Dysacademia as an apt metaphor for today\u27s dysfunctional academy, the current discursive analysis describes the various affects and effects that neoliberalism, performativity, discipline, and control have had upon the inorganic institutions of higher learning, and upon its primary subject concerns, the organic constituents known as the professoriate and the student body. As a follow up to this Ivory Tower deconstruction, a reconstructive enunciation is shaped using a conglomeration of postmodern, open systems,chaos, and poststructural theories to highlight the recursive potential that philosophy, cultural studies, and popular culture contain for opening undetermined and turbulent spaces that hold the promise and potential to expand the University\u27s undertakings regarding learning, culture, social engagement, critical epistemology, and authentic and reflexive ontology

Dysacademia in the Ivory Towers: Performativity, Discipline, Control & Chaotically Moving Towards the Shadows of the 3Rd Educational Spaces

This theoretical inquiry is based upon an archaeological and genealogical deconstruction of the character, utility and state of being of the modern university in the United States. In introducing Dysacademia as an apt metaphor for today\u27s dysfunctional academy, the current discursive analysis describes the various affects and effects that neoliberalism, performativity, discipline, and control have had upon the inorganic institutions of higher learning, and upon its primary subject concerns, the organic constituents known as the professoriate and the student body. As a follow up to this Ivory Tower deconstruction, a reconstructive enunciation is shaped using a conglomeration of postmodern, open systems,chaos, and poststructural theories to highlight the recursive potential that philosophy, cultural studies, and popular culture contain for opening undetermined and turbulent spaces that hold the promise and potential to expand the University\u27s undertakings regarding learning, culture, social engagement, critical epistemology, and authentic and reflexive ontology