Olivier Chesneau's work on low mass stars

During his too short career, Olivier Chesneau pioneered the study of the circumstellar environments of low mass evolved stars using very high angular resolution techniques. He applied state of the art high angular resolution techniques, such as optical interferometry and adaptive optics imaging, to the the study of a variety of objects, from AGB stars to Planetary Nebulae, via e.g. Born Again stars, RCB stars and Novae. I present here an overview of this work and most important results by focusing on the paths he followed and key encounters he made to reach these results. Olivier liked to work in teams and was very strong at linking people with complementary expertises to whom he would communicate his enthusiasm and sharp ideas. His legacy will live on through the many people he inspired.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the conference: "The Physics of Evolved Stars: A Conference Dedicated to the Memory of Olivier Chesneau"

Map, Trigger, Score, Procedure: machine-listening paradigms in live-electronics

Since the advent of real-time computer music environments, composers have increasingly incorporated DSP analysis, synthesis, and processing algorithms in their creative practices. Those processes became part of interactive systems that use real-time computational tools in musical compositions that explore diverse techniques to generate, spatialize, and process instrumental/vocal sounds. Parallel to the development of these tools and the expansion of DSP methods, new techniques focused on sound/musical information extraction became part of the tools available for music composition. In this context, this article discusses the creative use of Machine Listening and Musical Information Retrieval techniques applied in the composition of live-electronics works. By pointing out some practical applications and creative approaches, we aim to circumscribe, in a general way, the strategies for employing Machine Listening and Music Information Retrieval techniques observed in a set of live-electronics pieces, categorizing four compositional approaches, namely: mapping, triggering, scoring, and procedural paradigms of application of machine listening techniques in the context of live-electronics music compositions

Interactive morphologies: An investigation into integrated nodal networks and embedded computation processes for developing real-time responsive spatial systems

© 2012 Higher Education Press Limited Company. The design-research illustrated in this research article focus on the emerging field of interactive architecture focusing on developing real-time information exchanging architectural bodies. These interactive bodies demonstrate a fusion between the material, the electronic and the digital domains. This fusion is explicitly attained through a synergistic merger between the fields of ambient sensing, control systems, ubiquitous computing, architectural design, pneumatic systems and computation. The resultant spatial bodies are thus visualised as complex adaptive systems, continually engaged in activities of data-exchange resulting in physical and ambient adaptations of their constituting components in response to contextual variations. Interdependent nodal networks, where every node/junction of a spatial prototype becomes a potential information hub by means of its ability to collect, process and communicate contextual data apart from working as an actuated detail owing to its ability to kinetically re-position itself in three-dimensional space is thus a critical outcome of this inter-disciplinary way of working. A strategy apt for binding material logistics with the digital to materialize dynamic spatial behaviours owing to real time data exchange between the prototypes and their context is thus embarked upon via three research and design projects, namely: Electronic Media Augmented Spatial Skins, The InteractiveWall and the Muscle Re-configured

Worldwide Infrastructure for Neuroevolution: A Modular Library to Turn Any Evolutionary Domain into an Online Interactive Platform

Across many scientific disciplines, there has emerged an open opportunity to utilize the scale and reach of the Internet to collect scientific contributions from scientists and non-scientists alike. This process, called citizen science, has already shown great promise in the fields of biology and astronomy. Within the fields of artificial life (ALife) and evolutionary computation (EC) experiments in collaborative interactive evolution (CIE) have demonstrated the ability to collect thousands of experimental contributions from hundreds of users across the glob. However, such collaborative evolutionary systems can take nearly a year to build with a small team of researchers. This dissertation introduces a new developer framework enabling researchers to easily build fully persistent online collaborative experiments around almost any evolutionary domain, thereby reducing the time to create such systems to weeks for a single researcher. To add collaborative functionality to any potential domain, this framework, called Worldwide Infrastructure for Neuroevolution (WIN), exploits an important unifying principle among all evolutionary algorithms: regardless of the overall methods and parameters of the evolutionary experiment, every individual created has an explicit parent-child relationship, wherein one individual is considered the direct descendant of another. This principle alone is enough to capture and preserve the relationships and results for a wide variety of evolutionary experiments, while allowing multiple human users to meaningfully contribute. The WIN framework is first validated through two experimental domains, image evolution and a new two-dimensional virtual creature domain, Indirectly Encoded SodaRace (IESoR), that is shown to produce a visually diverse variety of ambulatory creatures. Finally, an Android application built with WIN, filters, allows users to interactively evolve custom image effects to apply to personalized photographs, thereby introducing the first CIE application available for any mobile device. Together, these collaborative experiments and new mobile application establish a comprehensive new platform for evolutionary computation that can change how researchers design and conduct citizen science online

Perspectives of electroacoustic music : a critical study of the electroacoustic music of Jonathan Harvey, Denis Smalley and Trevor Wishart.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D174894 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Non-Standard Sound Synthesis with Dynamic Models

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This Thesis proposes three main objectives: (i) to provide the concept of a new generalized non-standard synthesis model that would provide the framework for incorporating other non-standard synthesis approaches; (ii) to explore dynamic sound modeling through the application of new non-standard synthesis techniques and procedures; and (iii) to experiment with dynamic sound synthesis for the creation of novel sound objects. In order to achieve these objectives, this Thesis introduces a new paradigm for non-standard synthesis that is based in the algorithmic assemblage of minute wave segments to form sound waveforms. This paradigm is called Extended Waveform Segment Synthesis (EWSS) and incorporates a hierarchy of algorithmic models for the generation of microsound structures. The concepts of EWSS are illustrated with the development and presentation of a novel non-standard synthesis system, the Dynamic Waveform Segment Synthesis (DWSS). DWSS features and combines a variety of algorithmic models for direct synthesis generation: list generation and permutation, tendency masks, trigonometric functions, stochastic functions, chaotic functions and grammars. The core mechanism of DWSS is based in an extended application of Cellular Automata. The potential of the synthetic capabilities of DWSS is explored in a series of Case Studies where a number of sound object were generated revealing (i) the capabilities of the system to generate sound morphologies belonging to other non-standard synthesis approaches and, (ii) the capabilities of the system of generating novel sound objects with dynamic morphologies. The introduction of EWSS and DWSS is preceded by an extensive and critical overview on the concepts of microsound synthesis, algorithmic composition, the two cultures of computer music, the heretical approach in composition, non- standard synthesis and sonic emergence along with the thorough examination of algorithmic models and their application in sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition. This Thesis also proposes (i) a new definition for “algorithmic composition”, (ii) the term “totalistic algorithmic composition”, and (iii) four discrete aspects of non-standard synthesis

My Physical Approach to Musique Concrete Composition Portfolio of Studio Works

My recent practice-based research explores the creative potential of physical manipulation of sound in the composition of sound-based electronic music. Focusing on the poietic aspect of my music making, this commentary discusses the composition process of three musical works: Comme si la foudre pouvait durer, Igaluk - To Scare the Moon with its own Shadow and desert. It also examines the development of a software instrument, fXfD, along with its resulting musical production. Finally, it discusses the recent musical production of an improvisation duet in which I take part, Tout Croche. In the creative process of this portfolio, the appreciation for sound is the catalyst of the musical decisions. In other words, the term \musique concrete" applies to my practice, as sound is the central concern that triggers the composition act. In addition to anecdotal, typo-morphological and functional concerns, the presence of a \trace of physicality" in a sound is, more than ever, what convinces me of its musical potential. In order to compose such sounds, a back-and-forth process between theoretical knowledge and sound manipulations will be defined and developed under the concept of \sonic empiricism." In a desire to break with the cumbersome nature of studio-based composition work, approaches to sound-based electronic music playing were researched. Through the diferent musical projects, various digital instruments were conceived. In a case study, the text reviews them through their sound generation, gestural control and mapping components. I will also state personal preferences in the ways sound manipulations are performed. In the light of the observations made, the studio emerges as the central instrument upon which my research focuses. The variety of resources it provides for the production and control of sound confers the status of polymorphic instrument on the studio. The text concludes by reflecting on the possibilities of improvisation and performance that the studio offers when it is considered as an embodied polymorphic instrument. A concluding statement on the specific ear training needed for such a studio practice bridges the concepts of sound selection and digital instruments herein exposed

A Gaze-Driven Digital Interface for Musical Expression Based on Real-time Physical Modelling Synthesis

Individuals with severely limited physical function such as ALS sufferers are unable to engage in conventional music-making activities, as their bodily capabilities are often limited to eye movements. The rise of modern eye-tracking cameras has led to the development of augmented digital interfaces that can allow these individuals to compose music using only their gaze. This paper presents a gaze-controlled digital interface for musical expression and performance using a real-time physical model of a xylophone. The interface was designed to work with a basic Tobii eye-tracker and a scalable, open-source framework was built using the JUCE programming environment. A usability evaluation was carried out with nine convenience-sampled participants. Whilst the interface was found to be a feasible means for gaze-driven music performance our qualitative results indicate that the utility of the interface can be enhanced by expanding the possibilities for expressive control over the physical model. Potential usability improvements include a more robust gaze calibration method, as well as a redesigned graphical interface that is friendlier to individuals lacking musical training. Overall, we see this work as a step towards accessible and inclusive musical performance interfaces for those with major physical limitations

Audiovisual particles: parameter mapping as a framework for audiovisual composition

This thesis investigates the role of cross-modal correspondence within audiovisual composition, presenting both a conceptual model and a methodological framework for the creation of abstract audiovisual art. While this research is specifically aimed at the field of abstract digital animation it is also intended to act as a platform for the future development of concurrent audiovisual synthesis techniques within the general field of audiovisual art. Referencing literature regarding the psychophysiological bases for audiovisual integration, it is argued that temporal congruence offers a mechanism for the manipulation of cross-modal correspondence within audiovisual media. Further to this, electroacoustic and formalist theory is discussed with specific reference to the interrelationship of medium structures to enable the identification of a conceptual model for audiovisual composition. Referencing theory from the fields of musical instrument design and algorithmic composition, parameter mapping is identified as a mechanism for the modulation of temporal congruence. Its implementation within audiovisual composition is then discussed. Derived from both this and a conceptual parallel between the organisational structures of audio grains and visual particles, the audiovisual particles framework is presented as a methodological basis for the creation of abstract audiovisual art. The presented theory is supported by a series of demonstrative studies exploring both the practical application of the audiovisual particles framework and the role of parameter mapping within the process of audiovisual media generation. Experiential observations are discussed for each to inform future praxis. In addition, two audiovisual compositions are presented as both implementations of developed theory and as artworks in their own right