McLuhan.js: Live Net Art Performance with Remote Web Browsers

McLuhan.js is a media art performance platform which engages with the web browser as a source of form and content. The platform enables a new performance scenario: a performer creates live net art actions in the browsers of remote viewers. McLuhan.js contains client-side and server-side tools for creating net art, as well as a live coding performance interface. These tools are designed to remotely control real-time collages of web media, browser windows, and computer art tropes. While the McLuhan.js toolkit is deliberately of its time, it is so because it participates in a tradition of 20th-century artists who reflected on their daily lives by incorporating contemporary communications media into their creative practice. These artists consistently looked outward to found media as sources of inspiration. Empirical and experimental investigations into new media lead these artists to work directly with a medium’s raw materials—often in subversive or unorthodox patterns—to create new forms of art from the technological fabric of their era. The Last Cloud, a net art performance using McLuhan.js, reveals a dialogue with this artistic history. Its composition is described herein, along with a description of the McLuhan.js toolkit and a survey of the history it inherits

Evaluating computational creativity: a standardised procedure for evaluating creative systems and its application

This thesis proposes SPECS: a Standardised Procedure for Evaluating Creative Systems. No methodology has been accepted as standard for evaluating the creativity of a system in the field of computational creativity and the multi-faceted and subjective nature of creativity generates substantial definitional issues. Evaluative practice has developed a general lack of rigour and systematicity, hindering research progress. SPECS is a standardised and systematic methodology for evaluating computational creativity. It is flexible enough to be applied to a variety of different types of creative system and adaptable to specific demands in different types of creativity. In the three-stage process of evaluation, researchers are required to be specific about what creativity entails in the domain they work in and what standards they test a system’s creativity by. To assist researchers, definitional issues are investigated and a set of components representing aspects of creativity is presented, which was empirically derived using computational linguistics analysis. These components are recommended for use within SPECS, being offered as a general definition of creativity that can be customised to account for any specific priorities for creativity in a given domain. SPECS is applied in a case study for detailed comparisons of the creativity of three musical improvisation systems, identifying which systems are more creative than others and why. In a second case study, SPECS is used to capture initial impressions on the creativity of systems presented at a 2011 computational creativity research event. Five systems performing different creative tasks are compared and contrasted. These case studies exemplify the valuable information that can be obtained on a system’s strengths and weaknesses. SPECS gives researchers vital feedback for improving their systems’ creativity, informing further progress in computational creativity research

Communicating Air: Alternative Pathways to Environmental Knowing through Computational Ecomedia

This dissertation, Communicating Air: Alternative Pathways to Environmental Knowing through Computational Ecomedia, is the culmination of an art practice-led investigation into ways in which the production of ecomedia may open alternative pathways to environmental knowing in a time of urgent climate crisis. This thesis traces the author’s artistic, personal and political development across the period of study and presents an extended argument for greater public engagement with weather and climate science, greater public and private support for long-term collaborations between media art and climate science, and increased public open access to global weather and climate monitoring and computationally modelled data

Evaluating computational creativity: a standardised procedure for evaluating creative systems and its application

This thesis proposes SPECS: a Standardised Procedure for Evaluating Creative Systems. No methodology has been accepted as standard for evaluating the creativity of a system in the field of computational creativity and the multi-faceted and subjective nature of creativity generates substantial definitional issues. Evaluative practice has developed a general lack of rigour and systematicity, hindering research progress. SPECS is a standardised and systematic methodology for evaluating computational creativity. It is flexible enough to be applied to a variety of different types of creative system and adaptable to specific demands in different types of creativity. In the three-stage process of evaluation, researchers are required to be specific about what creativity entails in the domain they work in and what standards they test a system’s creativity by. To assist researchers, definitional issues are investigated and a set of components representing aspects of creativity is presented, which was empirically derived using computational linguistics analysis. These components are recommended for use within SPECS, being offered as a general definition of creativity that can be customised to account for any specific priorities for creativity in a given domain. SPECS is applied in a case study for detailed comparisons of the creativity of three musical improvisation systems, identifying which systems are more creative than others and why. In a second case study, SPECS is used to capture initial impressions on the creativity of systems presented at a 2011 computational creativity research event. Five systems performing different creative tasks are compared and contrasted. These case studies exemplify the valuable information that can be obtained on a system’s strengths and weaknesses. SPECS gives researchers vital feedback for improving their systems’ creativity, informing further progress in computational creativity research

Ashitaka: an audiovisual instrument

This thesis looks at how sound and visuals may be linked in a musical instrument, with a view to creating such an instrument. Though it appears to be an area of significant interest, at the time of writing there is very little existing - written, or theoretical - research available in this domain. Therefore, based on Michel Chion’s notion of synchresis in film, the concept of a fused, inseparable audiovisual material is presented. The thesis then looks at how such a material may be created and manipulated in a performance situation. A software environment named Heilan was developed in order to provide a base for experimenting with different approaches to the creation of audiovisual instruments. The software and a number of experimental instruments are discussed prior to a discussion and evaluation of the final ‘Ashitaka’ instrument. This instrument represents the culmination of the work carried out for this thesis, and is intended as a first step in identifying the issues and complications involved in the creation of such an instrument

Designing instruments towards networked music practices

It is commonly noted in New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) research that few of these make it to the mainstream and are adopted by the general public. Some research in Sound and Music Computing (SMC) suggests that the lack of humanistic research guiding technological development may be one of the causes. Many new technologies are invented, however without real aim else than for technical innovation, great products however emphasize the user-friendliness, user involvement in the design process or User-Centred Design (UCD), that seek to guarantee that innovation address real, existing needs among users. Such an approach includes not only traditionally quantifiable usability goals, but also qualitative, psychological, philosophical and musical such. The latter approach has come to be called experience design, while the former is referred to as interaction design. Although the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community in general has recognized the significance of qualitative needs and experience design, NIME has been slower to adopt this new paradigm. This thesis therefore attempts to investigate its relevance in NIME, and specifically Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for music applications by devising a prototype for group music action based on needs defined from pianists engaging in piano duets, one of the more common forms of group creation seen in the western musical tradition. These needs, some which are socio-emotional in nature, are addressed through our prototype although in the context of computers and global networks by allowing for composers from all over the world to submit music to a group concert on a Yamaha Disklavier in location in Porto, Portugal. Although this prototype is not a new gestural controller per se, and therefore not a traditional NIME, but rather a platform that interfaces groups of composers with a remote audience, the aim of this research is on investigating how contextual parameters like venue, audience, joint concert and technologies impact the overall user experience of such a system. The results of this research has been important not only in understanding the processes, services, events or environments in which NIME’s operate, but also understanding reciprocity, creativity, experience design in Networked Music practices.É de conhecimento generalizado que na área de investigação em novos interfaces para expressão musical (NIME - New Interfaces for Musical Expression), poucos dos resultantes dispositivos acabam por ser popularizados e adoptados pelo grande público. Algum do trabalho em computação sonora e musical (SMC- Sound and Music Computing) sugere que uma das causas para esta dificuldade, reside numalacuna ao nível da investigação dos comportamentos humanos como linha orientadora para os desenvolvimentos tecnológicos. Muitos dos desenvolvimentos tecnológicos são conduzidos sem um real objectivo, para além da inovação tecnológica, resultando em excelentes produtos, mas sem qualquer enfâse na usabilidade humana ou envolvimento do utilizador no processo de Design (UCDUser Centered Design), no sentido de garantir que a inovação atende a necessidades reais dos utilizadores finais. Esta estratégia implica, não só objectivos quantitativos tradicionais de usabilidade, mas também princípios qualitativos, fisiológicos, psicológicos e musicológicos. Esta ultima abordagem é atualmente reconhecida como Design de Experiência (Experience Design) enquanto a abordagem tradicional é vulgarmente reconhecida apenas como Design de Interação (Interaction Design). Apesar de na área Interação Homem-Computador (HCI – Human Computer Interaction) as necessidades qualitativas no design de experiência ser amplamente reconhecido em termos do seu significado e aplicabilidade, a comunidade NIME tem sido mais lenta em adoptar este novo paradigma. Neste sentido, esta Tese procura investigar a relevância em NIME, especificamente nu subtópico do trabalho cooperativo suportado por Computadores (CSCW – Computer Supported Cooperative Work), para aplicações musicais, através do desenvolvimento de um protótipo de um sistema que suporta ações musicais coletivas, baseado nas necessidades especificas de Pianistas em duetos de Piano, uma das formas mais comuns de criação musical em grupo popularizada na tradição musical ocidental. Estes requisitos, alguns sócioemocionais na sua natureza, são atendidos através do protótipo, neste caso aplicado ao contexto informático e da rede de comunicações global, permitindo a compositores de todo o mundo submeterem a sua música para um concerto de piano em grupo num piano acústico Yamaha Disklavier, localizado fisicamente na cidade do Porto, Portugal. Este protótipo não introduz um novo controlador em si mesmo, e consequentemente não está alinhado com as típicas propostas de NIME. Trata-se sim, de uma nova plataforma de interface em grupo para compositores com uma audiência remota, enquadrado com objectivos de experimentação e investigação sobre o impacto de diversos parâmetros, tais como o espaço performativo, as audiências, concertos colaborativos e tecnologias em termos do sistema global. O resultado deste processo de investigação foi relevante, não só para compreender os processos, serviços, eventos ou ambiente em que os NIME podem operar, mas também para melhor perceber a reciprocidade, criatividade e design de experiencia nas práticas musicais em rede