Autonomous Evolutionary Art

Eiben, A.E. [Promotor

Axial Generation: Mixing Colour and Shapes to Automatically Form Diverse Digital Sculptures

Abstract: Automated computer generation of aesthetically pleasing artwork has been the subject of research for several decades. The unsolved problem of interest is how to please any audience without requiring too much of their involvement in the process of creation. Two-dimensional pictures have received a lot of attention; however, 3D artwork has remained relatively unexplored. This paper showcases an extended version of the Axial Generation Process (AGP), a versatile generation algorithm that can create both 2D and 3D items within the Concretism art style. The extensions presented here include calculating colour values for the artwork, increasing the range of forms that can be created through dynamic sizing of shapes and including more primitive shape types, finally, 2D items can be created from multiple viewpoints. Both 2D and 3D items generated through the AGP were evaluated against a set of formal aesthetic measures and compared against two established generation systems, one based on manipulating pixels/voxels and another tracking the path of particles through 2D and 3D space. This initial evaluation shows that the process is capable of generating visually varied items which exhibit a generally diverse range of values across the measures used, in both two and three dimensions. Comparatively, against the established generation processes, the AGP shows a good balance of performance and ability to create complex and visually varied items

Sonata V of Jan Dismas Zelenka : a study in style and genre

textThe music of the late baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679- 1745) was not widely circulated during his lifetime. In the late twentieth century, Zelenka's music experienced a revival due to the rediscovery of his sonatas for double reed ensemble. The thesis examines the stylistic, generic, and historical context for Zelenka's Sonata V (ZWV 181, no. 5), tracing the development of the ensemble sonata for double reeds at the Augustan court. Chapter One focuses on Zelenka's life, as well as the purpose and dating of the six ensemble sonatas for obbligato double reeds (ZWV 181). The subsequent chapter surveys the national styles that were assimilated into the compositional traditions of the Dresden hofkapelle in the early 18th century. The role of the oboist within the court musical establishment and the social status of the hofmusicus are discussed. Chapter Three considers the precedents for and influences on Zelenka's Sonata V, particularly with respect to its inclusion in the little known genre of the sonata auf concertenart. These sonatas in the manner of a concerto adopt the formal outlines of Vivaldi's concertos and concerted sonatas while obscuring the distinctions of genre between the sonata and concerto through the treatment of scoring and texture. Zelenka's Sonata V follows the style of an early sonate auf concertenart of Vivaldi. Zelenka's concerted sonata departs from its model by confounding the identity of the initially distinct ritornello and solo material. The specific use of the oboe in Zelenka's sonatas, including playing techniques, and the degree of specialization are discussed. The conclusion speculates as to why Zelenka's music quickly fell out of favor and why even the composer himself was treated in a critical manner only a few generations after his time at Dresden. An understanding of the Dresden court not only provides a window on Zelenka's music, but also explains its almost immediate eclipse following his death.Musi

Loudness, Rhythm and Environment: Analytical Issues in Extreme Metal Music

Extreme metal music, with its consummate loudness and distortion, and intransigent culture of transgressiveness, resists analysis. This dissertation embraces extreme metal’s liveliness and channels it toward a broad cultural and musical analysis, exploring avenues of loudness, rhythm and ecocriticism. The study of extreme metal opens a window on liminal auralities, allowing the listener to encounter the thresholds of listening and the sheer physicality of sound. These aspects of the extreme metal listening experience open up a broader range of issues: the effects of loudness on the body and mind, the convergent mental and physical experiences of rhythmic complexity, and the sounding out of the often troubled relationship between humans and the natural world. Built as a series of case studies grounded in moments of sonic experience, the dissertation unearths issues essential to the analysis of extreme metal music and relevant to sonic practice more generally. The introductory chapter situates extreme metal in its current context, examining both the genre’s increasing institutionalization and the turbulent aspects of its history. Chapter 1 contemplates the embodied experience of extremely loud, low frequencies via an auto-ethnographic reading of a performance by the band Sunn O))). The second case study discusses the rhythmic practices of the band Meshuggah, discovering how unexpected beginnings, rotated riffs, and shifting metrical frameworks animate multiple sites of listening pleasure. Via the divergent work of the bands Botanist and Panopticon, the final chapter studies the range of possibilities for musical environmentalism, demonstrating how extreme metal can engage both apocalyptic and nostalgic modes of ecocriticism

Inspiration-triggered search: Za vyššími složitostmi napodobováním tvůrčích procesů

Jeden z hlavních problémů stochastických optimalizačních metod ze strojového učení je uvíznutí v lokálních optimech. Cílem této práce je vytvoření optimalizační metody inspirované uživateli webové služby Picbreeder, ve které mohou společně vyvíjet obrázky pomocí umělé evoluce. Hlavní myšlenkou je, že jejich chování představuje tvůrčí procesy. Představujeme metodu nazvanou inspiration-triggered search, která napodobuje zmíněné procesy a využívá k tomu libovolnou optimalizační techniku. Vyhledávání neobsahuje pevně daný cíl, místo toho je schopno samo si s určitými omezeními definovat vlastní cíle. Cílem optimalizace je vytvoření komplexních výtvorů, které nemohou být nalezeny hladovou a přímou optimalizací. Navržená metoda je otestována v doméně obrázků, kde je cílem nalezení komplexních a esteticky příjemných obrázků pro člověka, a porovnána s přímou optimalizací. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)The trap of local optima is one of the main challenges of stochastic optimization methods from machine learning. The aim of this thesis is to develop an optimization algorithm that is inspired by users interacting with Picbreeder, which is an online service that allows users to collaboratively evolve images via an artificial evolution. The idea is that their behaviours depict creative processes. We propose a general framework on the top of a common optimization technique called inspiration-triggered search, which mimics these processes. Instead of a fixed objective function the search algorithm is free to change the objective within certain constraints. The overall optimization task is to generate complex artefacts that cannot be generated by a greedy and direct optimization approach. The proposed method is tested in the domain of images, that is to find complex and aesthetically pleasant images for humans, and compared with the direct optimization. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical LogicKatedra teoretické informatiky a matematické logikyMatematicko-fyzikální fakultaFaculty of Mathematics and Physic

Symmetry Identified in 2-Dimensional Artwork Compositions Using Visuospatial Ability

At the John Langdon Down Foundation A.C. in the La Escuela Mexicana de Arte Down school in Mexico City D.F., Mexico, art students with Trisomy 21 display the use of a mathematical construct in the painting compositions of their artworks. The mathematical construct is a type of symmetry and it carries a positive affect. This is important because there have been no studies that have investigated the use of the symmetry in the artwork compositions of persons with Down syndrome. The geometric construction of the artwork compositions follows the artistic principle of the Rule of Three and the division of extreme and mean ratio (DEMR). The two specific geometric patterns are known as harmonic ratios and referred to as the HR-RT symmetry (harmonic ratio with Rule of Three) in this research. Painting composition is a demonstration of the intentionality of the artist, which involves sensory and cognitive processes that engage both artist and viewer. This communication is via the motoric ability of proportional gauging. The action of proportional gauging is the manner in which both the artist and viewer perceive the geometrics and aesthetics of the composition. This process is a conjoined visuospatial and bodily kinetic cortical process. A group of seven representative Master artists\u27 paintings from the Quattrocento was the standard of HR-RT with which to compare the use of the construct in the art students\u27 painting compositions. The Master artists\u27 employed HR-RT as a compositional element to direct the communication of a 3-dimensional spatial representation of an aesthetic experience via a 2-dimensional venue. A novel 5-step measurement procedure identifies the mathematical construct using a geometric grid overlay on the student artworks. In 159 student artworks (out of 161), the variable use of HR-RT, similar to the Master artists, was revealed in five quantized levels. The art students demonstrated the use of the construct at a strong level 62 images (38.51%) and at the moderate level 65 images (40.37%). Twenty-five of the images were at a low level (13.04%), 7 images were an inconsistent representation (4.347%) and in 2 images the construct was not found (1.24%)

Form and Dialectical Opposition in Elliott Carter’s Compositional Aesthetic

In his many writings and interviews, Elliott Carter frequently stresses the connection between human experiences of opposition and conflict and the opposition he composes into his musical interactions. While these concepts have received much attention in the scholarly literature over the decades, in this dissertation I examine the role of opposition in Carter’s music by bringing Carter’s aesthetic into contact with an Adornian tradition of dialectical aesthetics, something new to Carter scholarship. In particular, I harness Adorno’s concept of the social mediation of music materials to shed light on Carter’s linking of the musical and the human in his highly abstracted music. Central to this mediation is the way materials respond immanently to social conditions. I show how Carter conceives of musical form and temporality in terms closely aligned to Adorno, particularly with respect to non-repetition and freedom of formal design. However, I also argue that the way in which Carter worked with his musical materials did not remain static but responded to a changing modernism around the turn of the twenty-first century. Through an analysis of two of Carter’s late-late orchestral compositions, I examine how the notion of dialectical opposition finds expression in sonic images of lightness, effervescence and human fragility rather than the explosive oppositions of Carter’s middle period music. Part 1 of the thesis identifies traces of dialectical thinking in Carter’s writings and interviews and interprets these through an Adornian lens. Part 2 presents technical analyses of both the Boston Concerto (2002) and the ASKO Concerto (2000), focusing on how the repetition built in to the ritornello form of both pieces is re- formed by way of Carter’s dialectical handling of form and content. Part 3 offers a ‘second reflection’ in which philosophical concepts in Part 1 and technical concepts in Part 2 are drawn together into a critical analysis of how both materials and composer are mediated by the social

Misbehaving Minuets: A Preliminary Theory of Humor and Dance Form in Haydn\u27s Opp. 76 and 77

It is nearly impossible to read scholarship on Franz Joseph Haydn and escape the mention of musical humor. Scholars have long recognized the presence of humorous elements within Haydn’s compositions. Current literature delves into various aspects of humor in the composer’s works; in this project I focus specifically on humorous aspects of the minuet and trio movements from the late string quartets, Opp. 76 and 77. I begin by exploring and defining humor itself. Centuries of literature on the topic are generally parsed into three fundamental categories: Superiority Theory, Relief Theory, and Incongruity Theory. More contemporary approaches combine elements of these, creating what I call blended approaches. The burgeoning topic of music aesthetics has invited a wealth of exploration into humor as it specifically pertains to music; I combine traditional philosophical theories with these contemporary discussions in music to develop my analytical model. The minuet’s roles in eighteenth-century Western European culture as a ballroom dance, an emblem of social propriety, a compositional learning tool, and even a parlor dice game make it a complex genre to explore. Alongside its many cultural roles come various connotations and expectations; even those minuets performed away from the ballroom and parlor thus carry layers of suggested meaning. The ubiquity of the minuet dance suggests that listeners during Haydn’s career would have been exceedingly familiar with the choreographic conventions and stylistic norms at play. When the music engages with and even contradicts these expectations, it has the potential to arouse affective responses—possibly humor—in its listeners. Because of their familiarity with the minuet dance, eighteenth-century listeners likely subconsciously engaged with imagined choreographic patterns when hearing a concert minuet. If a musical element (i.e., phrase length, hypermeter, tempo, or surface rhythm) behaved in a way that altered the expected choreomusical interactions, the listener’s response was likely to be strongly embodied. Such heightened physiological reaction to the music, combined with the mental and emotional response to their denied expectations, harbors the potential for multi-faceted humor analyses. Over the course of ten close musical readings of select Opp. 76 and 77 minuets I explore various devices of musical humor. A large proportion of my analyses focus on hypermeter, as it is strongly related to the minuet choreography; I also explore humor as it relates to stylistic and affective norms. I rely on the expectations of a standard eighteenth-century listener to guide my analyses, and use elements of traditional humor theories to discuss the listener’s responses to the music

A Composite Modernist Composer : A Study of Intersections between Composition, Theorizing, and Performance in Olivier Messiaen

Different professional roles within music change over time. The evolution of modernism in twentieth century art music elevated the composer to the pinnacle of musical creativity. Accomplished modernist composers came to be regarded as intellectuals, and were expected to hold rational conceptions of their individual styles. An increased focus on intentionality in composition, and on notated scores as representations of fixed works, went hand in hand with a tendency to neglect performance in common discourses on art music. This dissertation investigates such intersections between professional roles in the influential French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908‒1992). The study builds upon a noticeable revival of modernist studies in musicology in the twenty-first century. Scholars working on twentieth century music have typically moved away from a previous reliance on composers’ own conceptualizations of their music, in the act bringing methods and concerns from postmodern musicology into their methodologies. Messiaen has frequently been treated as self-standing figure among twentieth century composers. As a contrast, his self-understanding as a composer is here historicized and investigated as part of typical intellectual predispositions among leading modernists. The study draws on recent musicological advances on composers’ writings and their recorded performances. It establishes a theoretical framework for critical approaches to both kinds of sources, as valuable complements to notated scores in investigations of what here is called composite work ontologies. In methodological terms, the dissertation builds a novel connection between analyses in specialized Messiaen scholarship and methods in textual interpretation that originated in German Romantic philosophy. Messiaen’s writings have recurrently been found wanting in systematicity and in discursive expositions of pivotal concepts and methods in composition. His manner of writing provides an example of a phenomenon that within musicology have prompted calls for a gapology, i.e., studies of discontinuities and omissions in composers’ prose and conceptualization of their own music. A fundamental premise in the dissertation is that both human selfconsciousness and communal discourses are to be expected to contain such blind spots. Consequently, scholars often need to reconstruct fundamental thought patterns that operate below the surface level in writings. This understanding and concomitant methods are put to work in two discrete articles, investigating the pivotal impact of plainchant in Messiaen’s aesthetics and the intellectual reception of his music by the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Messiaen’s interpretations of his own organ music are investigated in a third article, in which performance analysis is informed by deepened attention to the composer’s ideals of successful interpretations. The methods and theoretical framework formulated in the cover essay are also integral parts of the dissertation’s findings. They propose that a current broader revisiting of musical modernism provides a fertile framework for further work on Messiaen, performance and intellectual ideas operative in his compositions. The hermeneutical stance developed here is intended to serve similar carefully contextualized investigations of the composer’s writings and activities. The first article shows that Messiaen’s musical thought and some of his methods in composition were more thoroughly ingrained in a late Romantic paradigm of expressivity than many scholars have noted. It also reveals how he adopted vital theoretical premises from previous authors, turned them into musical ideas, and continued to adapt his use of them to developments within his own musical style. The second article opens new vistas for more thorough analyses of Messiaen as a composer-performer on the organ. In a novel manner, it suggests the need of considering Messiaen’s distinct ideas concerning the aims of musical interpretation, and their impact on his style of playing. This approach stresses the centrality of communicating the musical ideas and narrative content in individual pieces, to which notated scores are a means. The analysis shows that Messiaen at times perceived such ideas in a piece quite differently in his roles as a composer and as a performer. The third article corroborates previous observations concerning how Messiaen’s verbalization of his own music shaped its reception. At the same time, it highlights the impact of his student Pierre Boulez’s historiography of musical modernism, including the particular historical role it ascribed to Messiaen. The study also reveals how Deleuze and Guattari grasped pivotal aspects of Messiaen’s compositional methods on purely theoretical grounds, in the act facilitating philosophical employments of key musical techniques well beyond the composer’s stated understanding of them.Professionella roller inom musiken förändras över tid. Inom 1900-talets modernism kom tonsättarens ställning att höjas över andra roller inom musiklivet. Framstående tonsättare kom att betraktas som del av kategorin intellektuella i samhället och förväntades presentera välmotiverade ställningstaganden bakom sina kompositioner. En förhöjd värdering av sådana rationella aspekter gick hand i hand med en syn på noterade partitur som representationer av fixerade verk. Samtidigt framhävdes interpreters betydelse typiskt sett inte i diskussioner och analyser av konstmusik. Denna avhandling undersöker skärningspunkter mellan olika musikaliska yrkesroller hos den inflytelserike franske tonsättaren Olivier Messiaen (1908‒1992). Dess angreppssätt bygger på en ny våg av musikvetenskapliga studier av modernism som epok och begrepp. Studier kring 1900-talets konstmusik har rört sig bort från tonsättares egna sätt att teoretisera kring sin egen musik, i många fall inspirerade av metoder och frågeställningar i postmodern musikvetenskap. Messiaen har ofta behandlats som en fristående gestalt inom 1900-talets musik. Som en kontrast historiseras och undersöks här hans egna uppfattningar om rollen som tonsättare, inklusive dess växelspel med teoretiska idéer om musik samt med interpretation, som en del av mer generella tankemönster bland ledande modernistiska tonsättare. Avhandlingen tar intryck från nya musikvetenskapliga tolkningar av tonsättares skrifter och deras inspelade framföranden. Den etablerar ett teoretiskt ramverk för kritiska förhållningssätt till båda typerna av källor, som här betraktas som värdefulla komplement till partitur i undersökningar av vad som här kallas komplexa verkontologier. I metodologiskt avseende etablerar avhandlingen ett nytt samband mellan analyser inom den specialiserade Messiaenforskningen och texttolkningsmetoder med ursprung i tysk romantisk filosofi. Messiaens skrifter har återkommande funnits brista i systematik och diskursiva förklaringar av centrala begrepp och kompositionsmetoder. Hans skrivsätt utgör därmed ett exempel på ett fenomen som fått musikvetare att påtala behovet att studera diskontinuiteter och innehållsliga luckor i tonsättares prosa och teoretiserande av sin egen musik. En grundläggande utgångspunkt i avhandlingen är att både mänskligt självmedvetande och gemensamma diskurser kan förväntas innehålla sådana blinda fläckar. Följaktligen behöver forskare ofta rekonstruera grundläggande tankemönster som präglar skrifter, men utan att explicit exponeras i deras ytskikt. Denna syn, och metoder som växer ur den, präglar två av avhandlingens artiklar. Dessa undersöker den påtagliga betydelsen av gregoriansk sång i Messiaens estetik, samt receptionen av hans musik i filosoferna Gilles Deleuzes och Félix Guattaris skrifter. Messiaens tolkningar av sin egen orgelmusik undersöks i en tredje artikel, där interpretationsanalys tillåts präglas av ett fördjupat intresse för tonsättarens egna ideal kring lyckade uttolkningar. De metoder och teoretiska ramar som formuleras i kappan utgör delar av avhandlingens resultat. De indikerar att en vidare förnyad forskning kring musikalisk modernism utgör ett fruktbart ramverk för framtida studier av Messiaen och teoretiska idéer som präglar hans kompositioner. Den hermeneutiska hållning som utvecklas här är avsedd att tjäna som underlag även för liknande noggrant kontextualiserade studier av tonsättarens skrifter och aktiviteter. Den första artikeln visar att Messiaens musikaliska tänkande och flera av hans kompositionsmetoder var mer grundligt förankrade i ett senromantiskt expressivt paradigm än vad många forskare har noterat. Den visar också hur han anammade centrala teoretiska utgångspunkter från tidigare författare, omvandlade dem till musikaliska idéer, och fortsatte att anpassa sitt bruk av dem i takt med förändringar inom hans egen stil. Den andra artikeln presenterar ingångar för djupare analyser av Messiaen som interpret av sina egna orgelverk. Studien visar, på ett nytt sätt, på ett behov att överväga Messiaens specifika idéer om syften med musikalisk interpretation, och betydelsen av dessa idéer för hans eget sätt att spela. Denna ansats framhäver ett fokus på att kommunicera de musikaliska idéerna och det narrativa innehållet i enskilda verk, ett ändamål för vilket partitur är ett medel. Analysen visar att Messiaen i vissa fall förstod sådana idéer i ett stycke påtagligt annorlunda i sina roller som tonsättare och som interpret. Den tredje artikeln bekräftar tidigare iakttagelser om hur Messiaens egen teoretiska uttolkning av sin egen musik format dess reception. Samtidigt understryker den betydelsen av hans student Pierre Boulez historiografi kring musikalisk modernism, inklusive den specifika roll som denna tillskriver Messiaen. Studien avslöjar också hur Deleuze och Guattari lyckades analysera väsentliga aspekter av Messiaens kompositionsmetoder på rent teoretiska grunder, och därmed möjliggöra deras filosofiska användning av centrala musikaliska tekniker bortom tonsättarens egen förståelse av dem

Loudness, Rhythm and Environment: Analytical Issues in Extreme Metal Music

Extreme metal music, with its consummate loudness and distortion, and intransigent culture of transgressiveness, resists analysis. This dissertation embraces extreme metal’s liveliness and channels it toward a broad cultural and musical analysis, exploring avenues of loudness, rhythm and ecocriticism. The study of extreme metal opens a window on liminal auralities, allowing the listener to encounter the thresholds of listening and the sheer physicality of sound. These aspects of the extreme metal listening experience open up a broader range of issues: the effects of loudness on the body and mind, the convergent mental and physical experiences of rhythmic complexity, and the sounding out of the often troubled relationship between humans and the natural world. Built as a series of case studies grounded in moments of sonic experience, the dissertation unearths issues essential to the analysis of extreme metal music and relevant to sonic practice more generally. The introductory chapter situates extreme metal in its current context, examining both the genre’s increasing institutionalization and the turbulent aspects of its history. Chapter 1 contemplates the embodied experience of extremely loud, low frequencies via an auto-ethnographic reading of a performance by the band Sunn O))). The second case study discusses the rhythmic practices of the band Meshuggah, discovering how unexpected beginnings, rotated riffs, and shifting metrical frameworks animate multiple sites of listening pleasure. Via the divergent work of the bands Botanist and Panopticon, the final chapter studies the range of possibilities for musical environmentalism, demonstrating how extreme metal can engage both apocalyptic and nostalgic modes of ecocriticism. Extreme metal challenges music theory to grapple with what is lost in the act of analysis and to find better ways of tackling the liveliness of musical experience – an issue by no means exclusive to extreme metal. The demands of approaching such an insistently loud, distorted musical practice press the theorist to develop language that expands analytical practice toward greater inclusion of embodied experiences, and to detect how multiple sites of listening pleasure converge and intertwine.Musi