Music interaction: understanding music and human-computer interaction

We introduce and review recent research in Music and Human Computer Interaction, also known as Music Interaction. After a general overview of the discipline, we analyse the themes and issues raised by the fifteen chapters of this book, each of which presents recent research in this field. The bulk of this chapter is organised as an FAQ. This enables some FAQs to focus on cross cutting issues that appear in multiple chapters, and some chapters to feature in multiple FAQs. Broad topics include: the scope of research in Music Interaction; the role of HCI in Music Interaction; and conversely, the role of Music Interaction in HCI. High-level themes include embodied cognition, spatial cognition, evolutionary interaction, gesture, formal language, affective interaction, and methodologies from social science. Musical activities of interest include performance, composition, analysis, collaborative music making, and human and machine improvisation. Specific issues include: whether Music Interaction should be easy; what can be learned from the experience of being “in the groove”, and what can be learned from the deep commitment of musical amateurs. Broader issues include: what Music Interaction can offer traditional instruments and traditional musical activities; what relevance it has for non-musical domains; and ways in which Music Interaction can enable entirely new musical activities possible

Towards the realisation of a fully integrated Interactive Computer Music System (ICMS), adopting Transformative Expressive Dimensions

The principal aim of conducting this research project is to advance the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) in music through the inception of new and exciting ideas relating to the conceptual and aesthetic values and characteristics associated with interactive computer music system (ICMS) design, development and implementation. This exploratory investigation has been carried out through the continued development of a unique screen-based ICMS, ScreenPlay, which brings together aspects of many prominent, pre-existing system design models along with other novel inclusions, such as the capability of operating as both a multi-user-and-computer collaborative, improvisatory interactive performance system and a single-user-and-computer studio compositional tool for Ableton Live, and the implementation of Markovian generative and topic-theory-inspired transformative algorithms to provide new ways of breaking routine in collaborative improvisation and generating new musical ideas in composition, as well as providing new dimensions of expressivity. The intention being that the culmination of these efforts should be the establishment of a system design model that offers the user(s)/performer(s) a significantly more engaging, intuitive and complete interactive musical experience than that afforded by any currently available system. This is not an objective that should be perceived as being born of arrogance or ignorance; many established and commercially successful ICMSs provide users with amazing and unique experiences, and the value of their contribution to the field of HCI in music is not to be underestimated or taken for granted. However, for all the relative strengths and possibilities of interacting with these systems, there is potential for improvement and evolution in equal measure. This is largely due to the tendency of ICMS developers to focus (sometimes almost exclusively) on providing the best possible experience when engaging with a system only with regard to a single parameter/characteristic of the musical output at the expense of providing depth-in-control at any level over some or any of the many other parameters/characteristics available. It is necessary for all forms of technology and art to continually improve and evolve beyond what has already been achieved in order to avoid extinction, and nowhere is this more apparent than within an innovative and niche field of research such as HCI in music

Towards the realisation of a fully integrated InteractiveComputer Music System (ICMS), adoptingTransformative Expressive Dimensions

The principal aim of conducting this research project is to advance the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) in music through the inception of new and exciting ideas relating to the conceptual and aesthetic values and characteristics associated with interactive computer music system (ICMS) design, development and implementation. This exploratory investigation has been carried out through the continued development of a unique screen-based ICMS, ScreenPlay, which brings together aspects of many prominent, pre-existing system design models along with other novel inclusions, such as the capability of operating as both a multi-user-and-computer collaborative, improvisatory interactive performance system and a single-user-and-computer studio compositional tool for Ableton Live, and the implementation of Markovian generative and topic-theory-inspired transformative algorithms to provide new ways of breaking routine in collaborative improvisation and generating new musical ideas in composition, as well as providing new dimensions of expressivity. The intention being that the culmination of these efforts should be the establishment of a system design model that offers the user(s)/performer(s) a significantly more engaging, intuitive and complete interactive musical experience than that afforded by any currently available system.This is not an objective that should be perceived as being born of arrogance or ignorance; many established and commercially successful ICMSs provide users with amazing and unique experiences, and the value of their contribution to the field of HCI in music is not to be underestimated or taken for granted. However, for all the relative strengths and possibilities of interacting with these systems, there is potential for improvement and evolution in equal measure. This is largely due to the tendency of ICMS developers to focus (sometimes almost exclusively) on providing the best possible experience when engaging with a system only with regard to a single parameter/characteristic of the musical output at the expense of providing depth-in-control at any level over some or any of the many other parameters/characteristics available. It is necessary for all forms of technology and art to continually improve and evolve beyond what has already been achieved in order to avoid extinction, and nowhere is this more apparent than within an innovative and niche field of research such as HCI in music

Skyler and Bliss

Hong Kong remains the backdrop to the science fiction movies of my youth. The city reminds me of my former training in the financial sector. It is a city in which I could have succeeded in finance, but as far as art goes it is a young city, and I am a young artist. A frustration emerges; much like the mould, the artist also had to develop new skills by killing off his former desires and manipulating technology. My new series entitled HONG KONG surface project shows a new direction in my artistic research in which my technique becomes ever simpler, reducing the traces of pixelation until objects appear almost as they were found and photographed. Skyler and Bliss presents tectonic plates based on satellite images of the Arctic. Working in a hot and humid Hong Kong where mushrooms grow ferociously, a city artificially refrigerated by climate control, this series provides a conceptual image of a imaginary typographic map for survival. (Laurent Segretier