Listening and remembering: networked off-line improvisation for four commuters

This paper analyses the experience of the networked off-line improvisation 'Listening and Remembering', a performance for four commuters using voices and sounds from the Mexico City and Paris metros. It addresses the question: how can an act of collective remembering, inspired by listening to metro soundscapes, lead to the creation of networked voice- and sound-based narratives about the urban commuting experience? The networked experience is seen here from the structural perspective (telematic setting), the sonic underground context, the ethnographic process that led to the performance, the narratives that are created in the electro-acoustic setting, the shared acoustic environments that those creations suggest, and the technical features and participants' responses that prevent or facilitate interaction. Emphasis is placed on the participants' status as non-performers, and on their familiarity with the sonic environment, as a context that allows the participation of non-musicians in the making of music through telematically shared interfaces, using soundscape and real-time voice. Participants re-enact their routine experience through a dialogical relation- ship with the sounds, the other participants, themselves, and the experience of sharing: a collective memory

Investigating the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation: Experimental case studies using a novel application of the subsumption architecture

This thesis investigates the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation. To explore the cognitive underpinnings of the collaborative process, a series of experimental case studies was undertaken in which expert improvisors performed with an artificial agent. The research connects ecological musicology and subsumption robotics, and builds upon insights from empirical psychology pertaining to the attribution of intentionality. A distinguishing characteristic of free improvisation is that no over-arching framework of formal musical conventions defines it, and it cannot be positively identified by sound alone, which poses difficulties for traditional musicology. Current musicological research has begun to focus on the social dimension of music, including improvisation. Ecological psychology, which focuses on the relation of cognition to agent–environment dynamics using the notion of affordances, has been shown to be a promising approach to understanding musical improvisation. This ecological approach to musicology makes it possible to address the subjective and social aspects of improvised music, as opposed to the common treatment of music as objective and neutral. The subjective dimension of musical listening has been highlighted in music cognition studies of cue abstraction, whereby listeners perceive emergent structures while listening to certain forms of music when no structures are identified in advance. These considerations informed the design of the artificial agent, Odessa, used for this study. In contrast to traditional artificial intelligence (AI), which tends to view the world as objective and neutral, behaviour-based robotics historically developed around ideas similar to those of ecological psychology, focused on agent–environment dynamics and the ability to deal with potentially rapidly changing environments. Behaviour-based systems that are designed using the subsumption architecture are robust and flexible in virtue of their modular, decentralised design comprised of simple interactions between simple mechanisms. The competence of such agents is demonstrated on the basis of their interaction with the environment and ability to cope with unknown and dynamic conditions, which suggests the concept of improvisation. This thesis documents a parsimonious subsumption design for an agent that performs musical free improvisation with human co-performers, as well as the experimental studies conducted with this agent. The empirical component examines the human experience of collaborating with the agent and, more generally, the cognitive psychology of collaborative improvisation. The design was ultimately successful, and yielded insights about cognition in collaborative improvisation, in particular, concerning the central relationship between perceived intentionality and affordances. As a novel application of the subsumption architecture, this research contributes to AI/robotics and to research on interactive improvisation systems. It also contributes to music psychology and cognition, as well as improvisation studies, through its empirical grounding of an ecological model of musical interaction

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

Algorithmic music composition: a survey

This paper surveys some of the methods used for algorithmic composition and their evolution during the last decades. Algorithmic composition was motivated by the natural need to assist and to develop the process of music creation. Techniques and applications of algorithmic composition are broad spectrum, ranging from methods that produce entire works with no human intervention, up to methods were both composer and computer work closely together in real-time. Common algorithms used for music composition are based in stochastic, deterministic, chaotic and artificial intelligence methods.N/

A multi-dimensional entropy model of jazz improvisation for music information retrieval.

Jazz improvisation provides a case context for examining information in music; entropy provides a means for representing music for retrieval. Entropy measures are shown to distinguish between different improvisations on the same theme, thus demonstrating their potential for representing jazz information for analysis and retrieval. The calculated entropy measures are calibrated against human representation by means of a case study of an advanced jazz improvisation course, in which synonyms for "entropy" are frequently used by the instructor. The data sets are examined for insights in music information retrieval, music information behavior, and music representation

Changing Social Focussing in the Development of Jazz Music

This paper traces the development of jazz musical styles by relating those styles to the organization of jazz musicians and the social context of American society. The authors use a theory developed by Flynn and Hay (2012) derived from chaos and complexity science. The Flynn/Hay theory states that social focussing (chaos, complexity or order: SF) is directly proportional to internal structure (differentiation: D) and inversely related to external information (centrality: C). In mathematical terms: SF = D/C.The authors of this paper describe the social focussing of jazz styles in terms of being chaotic, complex or ordered. They then relate the styles of social focussing to the differentiation of the social system of jazz musicians, and the centrality inputs from the surrounding American society. Their results demonstrating that the style of jazz at each period from the late 19th century to the present era, is dependent upon the ratio of d/c.They conclude that the same analysis could be applied to subsystems of the jazz system, including the development of jazz styles in different geographic regions, as well as within each band and even over the career of each musician, in a kind of fractal effect, where the shape of social focussing is the same at each level. &nbsp

Jazz musicians as academic leaders: improvisation in higher education

2011 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Jazz musicians are unique individuals who seek to perform from a transcendental state in which tacit knowledge, teamwork, and communication blend to produce an effective performance. Academic leaders are also unique individuals who rely on communication to generate a sense of inclusion within a complex organization that at times epitomizes anarchy. The purpose of this Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is to examine the relationship between the skills and perspectives of improvising jazz musicians and academic leaders. Jazz musicians with experience as academic leaders shared their experiences in digitally recorded, semi structured interviews. The transcripts were analyzed to discover whether there was a relationship between the participant's experiences as jazz musicians and academic leaders. IPA was used as a qualitative analysis method to generate a hierarchy of themes that were integrated to form a composite picture of the phenomenon. The intent of the study was to discover whether jazz improvisation or its constituent elements could inform academic leadership. The phenomenon under examination was how jazz musicians experienced academic leadership. The essence of the participant's experiences has implications for leadership, higher education, and jazz musicians. An understanding of the shared experience could inform how jazz musicians, academic leaders, and leaders in other environments view their interpersonal interactions. Utilizing the practice of improvising jazz musicians may provide a unique perspective for leaders in any complex environment. Envisioning leadership through the lens of a jazz musician may provide an innovative approach that can benefit a diverse audience

The extended drum kit: A study of techniques and approaches in free improvisational contexts and their influence on contemporary compositions

I had my first experiences of free improvisation early in my undergraduate studies at the University of Huddersfield. Improvisation classes led by Philip Thomas and Simon H Fell in my first year introduced me to the concept of improvisation without any kind of stylistic conventions, sparking my interest in and enthusiasm for free improvisation. Following this, I then attended the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival for the first time in 2014, experiencing free improvisation for the first time in a live setting at a performance by vocalist Phil Minton and double bassist Simon H Fell