150 research outputs found

    Embodied gestures

    Get PDF
    This is a book about musical gestures: multiple ways to design instruments, compose musical performances, analyze sound objects and represent sonic ideas through the central notion of ‘gesture’. The writers share knowledge on major research projects, musical compositions and methodological tools developed among different disciplines, such as sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. They visualize how similar and compatible are the notions of embodied music cognition and the artistic discourses proposed by musicians working with ‘gesture’ as their compositional material. The authors and editors hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion around creative technologies and music, expressive musical interface design, the debate around the use of AI technology in music practice, as well as presenting a new way of thinking about musical instruments, composing and performing with them

    Embodied gestures

    Get PDF
    This is a book about musical gestures: multiple ways to design instruments, compose musical performances, analyze sound objects and represent sonic ideas through the central notion of ‘gesture’. The writers share knowledge on major research projects, musical compositions and methodological tools developed among different disciplines, such as sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. They visualize how similar and compatible are the notions of embodied music cognition and the artistic discourses proposed by musicians working with ‘gesture’ as their compositional material. The authors and editors hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion around creative technologies and music, expressive musical interface design, the debate around the use of AI technology in music practice, as well as presenting a new way of thinking about musical instruments, composing and performing with them

    Computational composition strategies in audiovisual laptop performance

    Get PDF
    We live in a cultural environment in which computer based musical performances have become ubiquitous. Particularly the use of laptops as instruments is a thriving practice in many genres and subcultures. The opportunity to command the most intricate level of control on the smallest of time scales in music composition and computer graphics introduces a number of complexities and dilemmas for the performer working with algorithms. Writing computer code to create audiovisuals offers abundant opportunities for discovering new ways of expression in live performance while simultaneously introducing challenges and presenting the user with difficult choices. There are a host of computational strategies that can be employed in live situations to assist the performer, including artificially intelligent performance agents who operate according to predefined algorithmic rules. This thesis describes four software systems for real time multimodal improvisation and composition in which a number of computational strategies for audiovisual laptop performances is explored and which were used in creation of a portfolio of accompanying audiovisual compositions

    Instruments for Spatial Sound Control in Real Time Music Performances. A Review

    Get PDF
    The systematic arrangement of sound in space is widely considered as one important compositional design category of Western art music and acoustic media art in the 20th century. A lot of attention has been paid to the artistic concepts of sound in space and its reproduction through loudspeaker systems. Much less attention has been attracted by live-interactive practices and tools for spatialisation as performance practice. As a contribution to this topic, the current study has conducted an inventory of controllers for the real time spatialisation of sound as part of musical performances, and classified them both along different interface paradigms and according to their scope of spatial control. By means of a literature study, we were able to identify 31 different spatialisation interfaces presented to the public in context of artistic performances or at relevant conferences on the subject. Considering that only a small proportion of these interfaces combines spatialisation and sound production, it seems that in most cases the projection of sound in space is not delegated to a musical performer but regarded as a compositional problem or as a separate performative dimension. With the exception of the mixing desk and its fader board paradigm as used for the performance of acousmatic music with loudspeaker orchestras, all devices are individual design solutions developed for a specific artistic context. We conclude that, if controllers for sound spatialisation were supposed to be perceived as musical instruments in a narrow sense, meeting certain aspects of instrumentality, immediacy, liveness, and learnability, new design strategies would be required

    The composer as technologist : an investigation into compositional process

    Get PDF
    This work presents an investigation into compositional process. This is undertaken where a study of musical gesture, certain areas of cognitive musicology, computer vision technologies and object-orientated programming, provide the basis for a composer (author) to assume the role of a technologist and acquire knowledge and skills to that end. In particular, it focuses on the application and development of a video gesture recognition heuristic to the compositional problems posed. The result is the creation of an interactive musical work with score for violin and electronics that supports the research findings. In addition, the investigative approach into developing technology to solve musical problems that explores practical composition and aesthetic challenges is detailed

    A multimodal framework for interactive sonification and sound-based communication

    Get PDF

    Rethinking Interaction: Identity and Agency in the Performance of “Interactive” Electronic Music

    Get PDF
    This document investigates interaction between human performers and various interactive technologies in the performance of interactive electronic and computer music. Specifically, it observes how the identity and agency of the interactive technology is experienced and perceived by the human performer. First, a close examination of George Lewis’ creation of and performance with his own historic interactive electronic and computer works reveals his disposition of interaction as improvisation. This disposition is contextualized within then contemporary social and political issues related to African American experimental musicians as well as an emerging culture of electronic and computer musicians concerned with interactivity. Second, an auto-ethnographic study reveals a contemporary performers perspective via the author’s own direct interactive experience with electronic and computer systems. These experiences were documented and analyzed using Actor Network Theory, Critical Technical Practice, theories of Embodiment and Embodied Cognition, Lewis’s conceptions of improvisation, as well as Tracy McMullen’s theory of the Improvisative. Analyses from both studies revealed that when and how performers chose to “other” interactive technologies significantly influenced their actions. The implications of this are discussed in terms of identity formation both within performances of interactive electronic music and interactive technologies generally

    Audio-Based Visualization of Expressive Body Movements in Music Performance: An Evaluation of Methodology in Three Electroacoustic Compositions

    Get PDF
    An increase in collaboration amongst visual artists, performance artists, musicians, and programmers has given rise to the exploration of multimedia performance arts. A methodology for audio-based visualization has been created that integrates the information of sound with the visualization of physical expressions, with the goal of magnifying the expressiveness of the performance. The emphasis is placed on exalting the music by using the audio to affect and enhance the video processing, while the video does not affect the audio at all. In this sense the music is considered to be autonomous of the video. The audio-based visualization can provide the audience with a deeper appreciation of the music. Unique implementations of the methodology have been created for three compositions. A qualitative analysis of each implementation is employed to evaluate both the technological and aesthetic merits for each composition
    • 

    corecore