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

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

Reflexion

Die Musik des 20. und bisherigen 21. Jahrhunderts ist geprägt von einer nie dagewesenen Komplexität kompositorischer Ansätze, die mit dem Aufbrechen der herkömmlichen Dur-Moll-Tonalität begann und mit den multimedialen Möglichkeiten des neuen Jahrhunderts noch lange nicht zu Ende ist. Auch die vor allem nach 1950 eingetretene fundamentale Wandlung ästhetischer Positionen aufgrund gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche hat ihre Spuren in der Musik hinterlassen. Der Begriff der Musik entwickelte sich im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts zu einem vielschichtigen Topos pluraler Musiken, basierend u.a. auf neuen kompositorischen Mitteln, interkulturellen Begegnungen, unterschiedlichen medialen Zugängen und nicht zuletzt einem Wandel ästhetischer Rezeptionsmechanismen. Im vorliegenden Band werden Referate zu diesem Themenkomplex aus der Rubrik „Freie Referate“ des 15. Internationalen Kongresses der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, der vom 4.–8. September 2012 in Göttingen unter dem Motto „Musik | Musiken. Strukturen und Prozesse“ stattfand, zusammengefasst. Das Panorama reicht dabei von Fragen nach einer kompositorischen Spätstilistik, kulturellen Austauschprozessen, musikalischen Grenzerfahrungen und intermedialen Exotismen bis hin zu multimedialen Klanginstallationen und Musiktheaterkompositionen und dem damit verbundenen Aufbrechen tradierter Gattungsgefüge.Die Musik des 20. und bisherigen 21. Jahrhunderts ist geprägt von einer nie dagewesenen Komplexität kompositorischer Ansätze, die mit dem Aufbrechen der herkömmlichen Dur-Moll-Tonalität begann und mit den multimedialen Möglichkeiten des neuen Jahrhunderts noch lange nicht zu Ende ist. Auch die vor allem nach 1950 eingetretene fundamentale Wandlung ästhetischer Positionen aufgrund gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche hat ihre Spuren in der Musik hinterlassen. Der Begriff der Musik entwickelte sich im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts zu einem vielschichtigen Topos pluraler Musiken, basierend u.a. auf neuen kompositorischen Mitteln, interkulturellen Begegnungen, unterschiedlichen medialen Zugängen und nicht zuletzt einem Wandel ästhetischer Rezeptionsmechanismen. Im vorliegenden Band werden Referate zu diesem Themenkomplex aus der Rubrik „Freie Referate“ des 15. Internationalen Kongresses der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, der vom 4.–8. September 2012 in Göttingen unter dem Motto „Musik | Musiken. Strukturen und Prozesse“ stattfand, zusammengefasst. Das Panorama reicht dabei von Fragen nach einer kompositorischen Spätstilistik, kulturellen Austauschprozessen, musikalischen Grenzerfahrungen und intermedialen Exotismen bis hin zu multimedialen Klanginstallationen und Musiktheaterkompositionen und dem damit verbundenen Aufbrechen tradierter Gattungsgefüge

Growing music from seeds : parametric generation and control of seed-based msuic for interactive composition and performance

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79).by Alexander Rigopulos.M.S

Using simple controls to manipulate complex objects : application to the Drum-Boy interactive percussion system

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-93).by Fumiaki Matsumoto.M.S

Inside the conductor's jacket : analysis, interpretation and musical synthesis of expressive gesture

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-167).We present the design and implementation of the Conductor's Jacket, a unique wearable device that measures physiological and gestural signals, together with the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that interprets these signals and applies them expressively in a musical context. Sixteen sensors have been incorporated into the Conductor's Jacket in such a way as to not encumber or interfere with the gestures of a working orchestra conductor. The Conductor's Jacket system gathers up to sixteen data channels reliably at rates of 3 kHz per channel, and also provides mcal-time graphical feedback. Unlike many gesture-sensing systems it not only gathers positional and accelerational data but also senses muscle tension from several locations on each arm. The Conductor's Jacket was used to gather conducting data from six subjects, three professional conductors and three students, during twelve hours of rehearsals and performances. Analyses of the data yielded thirty-five significant features that seem to reflect intuitive and natural gestural tendencies, including context-based hand switching, anticipatory 'flatlining' effects, and correlations between respiration and phrasing. The results indicate that muscle tension and respiration signals reflect several significant and expressive characteristics of a conductor's gestures. From these results we present nine hypotheses about human musical expression, including ideas about efficiency, intentionality, polyphony, signal-to-noise ratios, and musical flow state. Finally, this thesis describes the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that analyzes and performs music in real-time based on the performer's gestures and breathing signals. A bank of software filters extracts several of the features that were found in the conductor study, including beat intensities and the alternation between arms. These features are then used to generate real-time expressive effects by shaping the beats, tempos, articulations, dynamics, and note lengths in a musical score.by Teresa Marrin Nakra.Ph.D

Live electronics in live performance : a performance practice emerging from the piano+ used in free improvisation

This thesis explores a performance practice within free improvisation. This is not a theory based improvisation – performances do not require specific preparation and the music refrains from repetition of musical structures. It engages in investigative and experimental approaches emerging from holistic considerations of acoustics, interaction and instrument, and also philosophy, psychology, sociopolitics and technology. The performance practice explores modes and approaches to working with the given potentiality of an electronically augmented acoustic instrument and involves the development of a suitably flexible computerised performance system, the piano+, combining extended techniques and real-time electroacoustic processes, which has the acoustic piano at its core. Contingencies of acoustic events and performance gestures – captured by audio analysis and sensors and combined to control the parameter space of computer processes – manipulate the fundamental properties of sound, timbre and time. Spherical abstractions, developed under consideration of Agamben’s potentiality and Sloterdijk’s philosophical theory of spheres, allow a shared metaphor for technical, instrumental, personal, and interpersonal concerns. This facilitates a theoretical approach for heuristic and investigative improvisation where performance is considered ‘Ereignis’ (an event) for sociopolitically aware activities that draw on the situational potentiality and present themselves in fragile and context dependent forms. Ever new relationships can be found and developed, but can equally be lost. Sloterdijk supplied the concept of knowledge resulting from equipping our ‘inner space’, an image suiting non-linearity of thought that transpires from Kuhl’s psychological PSI-theory to explain human motivation and behaviour. The role of technology – diversion and subversion of sound and activity – creates a space between performer and instrument that retains a fundamental pianism but defies expectation and anticipation. Responsibility for one’s actions is required to deal with the unexpected without resorting to preliminary strategies restricting potential discourses, particularly within ensemble situations. This type of performance embraces the ‘Ereignis’.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Live Electronics in Live Performance: A Performance Practice Emerging from the piano+ used in Free Improvisation.

This thesis explores a performance practice within free improvisation. This is not a theory based improvisation – performances do not require specific preparation and the music refrains from repetition of musical structures. It engages in investigative and experimental approaches emerging from holistic considerations of acoustics, interaction and instrument, and also philosophy, psychology, sociopolitics and technology. The performance practice explores modes and approaches to working with the given potentiality of an electronically augmented acoustic instrument and involves the development of a suitably flexible computerised performance system, the piano+, combining extended techniques and real-time electroacoustic processes, which has the acoustic piano at its core. Contingencies of acoustic events and performance gestures – captured by audio analysis and sensors and combined to control the parameter space of computer processes – manipulate the fundamental properties of sound, timbre and time. Spherical abstractions, developed under consideration of Agamben’s potentiality and Sloterdijk’s philosophical theory of spheres, allow a shared metaphor for technical, instrumental, personal, and interpersonal concerns. This facilitates a theoretical approach for heuristic and investigative improvisation where performance is considered ‘Ereignis’ (an event) for sociopolitically aware activities that draw on the situational potentiality and present themselves in fragile and context dependent forms. Ever new relationships can be found and developed, but can equally be lost. Sloterdijk supplied the concept of knowledge resulting from equipping our ‘inner space’, an image suiting non-linearity of thought that transpires from Kuhl’s psychological PSI-theory to explain human motivation and behaviour. The role of technology – diversion and subversion of sound and activity – creates a space between performer and instrument that retains a fundamental pianism but defies expectation and anticipation. Responsibility for one’s actions is required to deal with the unexpected without resorting to preliminary strategies restricting potential discourses, particularly within ensemble situations. This type of performance embraces the ‘Ereignis’