Complexity as Process: Complexity Inspired Approaches to Composition

This article examines the use of Complexity Theory as an inspiration for the creation of new musical works, and highlights problems and possible solutions associated with its application as a compositional tool. In particular it explores how the philosophy behind Complexity Theory affects notions of process-based composition, indeterminacy in music and the performer/listener/environment relationship, culminating in providing a basis for the understanding of music creation as an active process within a context. The author presents one of his own sound installations, Cross-Pollination, as an example of a composition inspired and best understood from the philosophical position as described in Complexity Theory

Idiosyncratic Audio Feedback Networks for Music Creation

This article presents practical and artistic contributions to the field of computer music systems based on audio feedback networks. The ideas that oriented the conception of two digital music instruments and examples of their use in the author's music practice are discussed. The article begins with a general conceptualization of feedback systems as well as a brief historical review of its use in experimental music. Later, a more specific contextualization of its application in recent computer music research and artwork is made, and two contributions are presented: the first is a network of cross-modulated sinusoidal oscillators (by frequency modulation), and the second is a network of algorithms for playing and transforming pre-recorded sound samples. In conclusion, examples of the artistic usage of the described systems to the creation of electroacoustic music are discussed

Toward a synthetic acoustic ecology: sonically situated, evolutionary agent based models of the acoustic niche hypothesis

We introduce the idea of Synthetic Acoustic Ecology (SAC) as a vehicle for transdisciplinary investigation to develop methods and address open theoretical, applied and aesthetic questions in scientific and artistic disciplines of acoustic ecology. Ecoacoustics is an emerging science that investigates and interprets the ecological role of sound. It draws conceptually from, and is reinvigorating the related arts-humanities disciplines historically associated with acoustic ecology, which are concerned with sonically-mediated relationships between human beings and their environments. Both study the acoustic environment, or soundscape, as the literal and conceptual site of interaction of human and non-human organisms. However, no coherent theories exist to frame the ecological role of the soundscape, or to elucidate the evolutionary processes through which it is structured. Similarly there is a lack of appropriate computational methods to analyse the macro soundscape which hampers application in conservation. We propose that a sonically situated flavour of Alife evolutionary agent-based model could build a productive bridge between the art, science and technologies of acoustic ecological investigations to the benefit of all. As a first step, two simple models of the acoustic niche hypothesis are presented which are shown to exhibit emergence of complex spectro-temporal soundscape structures and adaptation to and recovery from noise pollution events. We discuss the potential of SAC as a lingua franca between empirical and theoretical ecoacoustics, and wider transdisciplinary research in ecoacoustic ecology

Aleatoricism and the Anthropocene: Narrowing the divide between humanity and nature through chance-based art research

An important aspect of art is that it functions as a dialogical platform for the cultivation of ecological thought. In this thesis, I explore ways in which discourses on the Anthropocene can emerge through art that involves chance-based collaborations between humans and plants. As a case study, I examine selected works from American avant-garde composer John Cage, who used chance operations to construct musical compositions. Through his use of non-traditional plant-based instruments and the I Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text, Cage turned his attention to the inseparability of humanity and nature. I explore parallels between Cage’s approach and bio-sonification, a process of turning the biological rhythms of living entities into sound, which I use as a generative device to create aleatoric virtual piano compositions from plants’ electrical signals. Chance-based mechanisms in art production and approaches to environmental philosophy form the theoretical foundation for the arguments presented. This practice-based work explores the multitextured ecologies that human and non-human lifeforms are enmeshed within. It suggests that by challenging anthropocentric assumptions, ecologically engaged sound composition has the potential to generate discourses on the Anthropocene. Art about the Anthropocene can liberate us from a dichotomy of nature and culture, which facilitates the desecration of the natural world through unsustainable environmental practices that threaten the viability of life on Earth. Keywords bio-sonification, MIDI, indeterminism, chance-based art, ecological thought, practice-based, aleatoric music, generative art, John Cage, Anthropocen

Sonic ecologies : a journey through music, space and sensations in jazz live performances

Music has become a dominant and popularised form of culture in the modern world, produced and reproduced by the masses. It seems that the idea of continuous separation of the ‘human’ with the ‘nonhuman’ created a deep gap regarding the conceptualization of organic and harmonious practices for sustainable development of the world’s economic, cultural and social spheres. With this individualistic perspective, the idea of community and the connection between the outside world and humans have fallen into oblivion. Music culture and the music industries, powered by a massive technological and globalised process, have allowed an international travelling of sound with traits and characteristics of different cultures, rituals and ways of making music. Music is a way of connecting with the world. Specifically, the jazz musical genre approaches change in musical and performative practices while preserving its connection to its roots, tradition and rituals. It distinguishes itself from other musical genres through its instrumental characteristics, musical dialogues, and intrinsic traits that refer to its history and sociocultural influence. Aiming to reconcile the environment and civilisation, together with the intersection of the nonhuman and human world, the physical and the cultural spheres all mediated by sound composition, this dissertation explores the musical genre of jazz and its live performances in a given surrounding. Following an extensive literature review, this work delves into the fundamental aspects of sound, music, audience, performance and performativity. It travels through sensations and relationships integrated into the ecological performative system. To question the way the spirit and sensation of a place, through an ecological approach affects the performance of a cultural product such as live jazz, and how this influences the performance/performers and audiences, the work approaches three main blocks: the social cooperation in music and its instrumental relationship, the intersection between actor and audience and the embeddedness of the performance in a specific environment.No mundo moderno, a música tem vindo a tornar-se numa forma de cultura dominante e popularizada, produzida e reproduzida pelas massas. Parecer que a ideia de uma separação contínua do humano em relação ao ‘não-humano’ criou um espaçamento profundo relativamente à conceptualização de práticas orgânicas e harmoniosas para um desenvolvimento sustentável das esferas económicas, culturais e sociais do nosso mundo. De acordo com uma perspetiva individualista, parece que a ideia de comunidade e elo entre o mundo exterior e o homem caíram no esquecimento. A cultura e as indústrias musicais, impulsionadas por um grande processo tecnológico global, têm permitido uma viagem internacional de som com traços e características de diferentes culturas, rituais e práticas de conceção musical. A música é uma forma de ligação com o mundo. Especificamente, o género musical jazz aborda a mudança nas práticas musicais e performativas, preservando uma conexão com as suas raízes, tradições e rituais. Distingue-se de outros géneros musicais através das suas características instrumentais, diálogos musicais e traços intrínsecos que se referem à sua história e influência sociocultural. Visando uma reconciliação do meio ambiente e da civilização, juntamente com a intersecção do mundo não humano e humano, as esferas física e cultural por intermédio da composição sonora, esta dissertação explora o género musical jazz e suas performances ao vivo num determinado ambiente. Após uma extensa revisão da literária, este trabalho explora os aspetos fundamentais da música, espaço, público, performance e performatividade. O trabalho percorre as sensações e relações que se integram no sistema performativo ecológico. De forma a questionar como o espírito e a sensação de um lugar, por meio de uma abordagem ecológica, afetam a performance de um produto cultural como o jazz ao vivo, e ainda, como isso influencia a performance/atores e o público, o trabalho aborda três blocos principais: a cooperação social na música e sua relação instrumental, a interseção entre ator-performance-público e a inserção da performance num ambiente específico

Cybernetics in Music

This thesis examines the use of cybernetics (the science of systems) in music, through the tracing of an obscured history. The author postulates that cybernetic music may be thought of as genera of music in its own right, whose practitioners share a common ontology and set of working practices that distinctly differ from traditional approaches to composing electronic music. Ultimately, this critical examination of cybernetics in music provides the framework for a series of original compositions and the foundation of the further study of cybernetic music

Theoretical Approaches to Musical Creativity: The Ubimus Perspective

We tackle the theoretical implications of an emergent field of study, ubiquitous music (ubimus). Striving to place musical research within the wider field of creativity studies, this paper covers theoretical background and critical discussions of three music creativity models - a model proposed by Mannis (2014), the In-group, Out-group model (MDF - Ferraz and Keller 2014) and the ecologically grounded perspective (Keller and Lazzarini 2017). Data and on-site observations of creative activities provide the raw materials to test musical theories. Recent ubiquitous music research features multiple experimental initiatives, involving children (Pereira et al. in press), adolescents (Lima et al. 2012) or the elderly, and targeting trained musicians (Ferreira et al. 2015), novices (Miletto et al. 2011) and cognitively challenged adults. We chose three ubimus studies to exemplify empirical research that brings to light issues that have not been considered by some of the current theoretical approaches to musical creativity. Abordamos as implicações teóricas de um campo de estudos emergente – a música ubíqua (ubimus). Buscando situar a pesquisa musical dentro dos estudos sobre criatividade, este artigo abrange o substrato teórico e as discussões críticas de três modelos de criatividade musical – um modelo proposto por Mannis (2014), o Modelo Dentro-Fora (MDF - Ferraz e Keller 2014) e a perspectiva ecológica (Keller e Lazzarini 2017). Os dados e as observações in loco de atividades criativas forneceram materiais brutos para testarmos teorias musicais. Pesquisas recentes em música ubíqua concentram-se em múltiplas iniciativas experimentais, envolvendo crianças (Pereira et al. no prelo), adolescentes (Lima et al. 2012) ou idosos, e focando em músicos profissionais (Ferreira et al. 2015), iniciantes (Miletto et al. 2011) e adultos com deficiências cognitivas. Escolhemos três estudos em música ubíqua para exemplificar as pesquisas empíricas que trazem à luz problemas que ainda não foram tratados desde as perspectivas teóricas da criatividade musical

The soundscape of Anthropocene

Recently, much attention has been paid to the many different forms of collaborative or participatory practice both within, and out with the academy; from practice-based research to theoretical contributions and artistic experimentations. In terms of acoustemology as described by Steven Feld, the creative processes of collaborative soundscaping practices, developed as dialogic editing, produce theories of sound as knowledge production. Within this trend of doing anthropology in sound, sound art works aim to reconnect communities to the environment and indicate the emergence and presence of an ecological and aesthetic co-evolution. Such projects, in fostering interdisciplinary approaches, allow the development of hybrid types of knowledge through dialogic exchanges, and engage multiple agents by developing audile techniques. They also raise interesting questions within collaborative and interdisciplinary creative practice, in relation to the critical examination of the instrumentality of collaboration. By focusing on field recordings and soundscape compositions this paper discusses ecological sound art works that use collaborative creativity, new technologies, and phenomenological listening, to produce dialogic and collaborative forms of epistemic and material equity. These sound art works are the result of complex expressions of creative processes that involve multiple agents, while successfully voice their authorial presence. The interdisciplinary, collaborative and open-ended nature of these projects brings forward the social and political dimension of sound and listening, which could figure in more collaborative forms of knowledge production and inspire climate action

Actions towards freedom: Theoretical and practical perspectives on improvisation and composition

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.This thesis, and the accompanying portfolio of pieces, is concerned with investigating practical and theoretical meeting points between improvisation and composition. Such meeting points are evaluated alongside a consideration of ‘freedom’ in improvised music, for which a frame is drawn from George Lewis’s concepts of the ‘Afrological’ (placing emphasis on expression of the ‘self’) and ‘Eurological’ (in which the ‘self’ is explicitly avoided). It is suggested that a reconciliation of these two extremes might be found in a compositional ‘creative displacement’, which might change an improviser’s environment in unforeseen ways and thus stimulate explorations of expressive novelty. Three different compositional approaches to ‘creative displacement’ are investigated: through fixed notation, through electronic real-time notation, and through leadership in a workshop setting. In each case compositional experiments will be undertaken and documented, detailing the creation and realisation of the pieces included in the accompanying portfolio. A terminology for the theoretical consideration of these approaches will draw on theories of complex systems, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, and various socio-musicological models such as those of Steven Feld and Charles Keil. Through an evaluation of the portfolio compositions in rehearsal and performance, this thesis will conclude that a reconciliation of Lewis’s ‘Afro’ and ‘Eurological’ can be found through the external application of limitations to improvisational creativity. Such constraints will be described as ‘creatively displacing’ if they provoke a performer towards an exploration of novel expressive approaches. In order to achieve this in practice, limitations must be carefully judged with regard to their degree of abstraction, the manner of their presentation and the nature of their notation; it will be suggested that the presence of a leader is vital in achieving this. These conclusions will lead to a questioning of conventional ideas of improvisation and leadership, and suggest a re-evaluation of indeterminacy within notation