3 research outputs found
Musicianship for Robots with Style
ABSTRACT In this paper we introduce a System conceived to serve as the "musical brain" of autonomous musical robots or agent-based software simulations of robotic systems. Our research goal is to provide robots with the ability to integrate with the musical culture of their surroundings. In a multi-agent configuration, the System can simulate an environment in which autonomous agents interact with each other as well as with external agents (e.g., robots, human beings or other systems). The main outcome of these interactions is the transformation and development of their musical styles as well as the musical style of the environment in which they live
AN APPROACH TO MACHINE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL ONTOGENY
This Thesis pursues three main objectives: (i) to use computational modelling to
explore how music is perceived, cognitively processed and created by human
beings; (ii) to explore interactive musical systems as a method to model and
achieve the transmission of musical influence in artificial worlds and between
humans and machines; and (iii) to experiment with artificial and alternative
developmental musical routes in order to observe the evolution of musical
styles.
In order to achieve these objectives, this Thesis introduces a new paradigm for
the design of computer interactive musical systems called the Ontomemetical
Model of Music Evolution - OMME, which includes the fields of musical
ontogenesis and memetlcs. OMME-based systems are designed to artificially
explore the evolution of music centred on human perceptive and cognitive
faculties.
The potential of the OMME is illustrated with two interactive musical systems,
the Rhythmic Meme Generator (RGeme) and the Interactive Musical
Environments (iMe). which have been tested in a series of laboratory
experiments and live performances. The introduction to the OMME is preceded
by an extensive and critical overview of the state of the art computer models
that explore musical creativity and interactivity, in addition to a systematic
exposition of the major issues involved in the design and implementation of
these systems.
This Thesis also proposes innovative solutions for (i) the representation of
musical streams based on perceptive features, (ii) music segmentation, (iii) a
memory-based music model, (iv) the measure of distance between musical
styles, and (v) an impi*ovisation-based creative model
Art and Technology: coherence, connectedness, and the integrative field
Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/690 on 03.04.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis is a theoretical and practical intervention in the field of art and technology. It
proceeds from the re-examination of four specific domains that in the past 40 years have
considerably informed the invention of new aesthetic forms. They are: art, science, nature
and technology. We have identified that each one of these domains and the way they inform
one another reflects the influence of a Western analytical tradition based on fragmentation,
dichotomies and dualities. In consequence of this, art of the last decades has suffered from
a sort of mechanistic thought which results from a predominantly weary aesthetic model,
founded in dualities such as: object/process, form/behaviour, meaning/information.
The main question that the present study addresses is how to overcome this
predominantly reductionist inheritance and to develop an aesthetic model able to
interconnect in an integrative fashion those disparate domains, respective discourses and
practices? The answer to this question, developed throughout this thesis, is an aesthetic
principle built upon the notions of resonance, coherence and field models, rooted in an
integrative view of living organisms based on the theory of biophotons. This constitutes the
main contribution of the thesis to new knowledge.
The theoretical approach of this thesis is developed upon the revision of the concept
of form, supported by a Gestalt analysis as provided by Rudolf Arnheim, and has involved
the consideration of the ideas of Gilbert Simondon (the concept of "concretisation") and
Vilem Flusser (the concept of "apparatus"), in order to gain a deeper insight into the nature
of technology.
In conclusion, the practice-based methodology of this thesis has been to develop
artworks based on the confluence of living organisms (plants) and artificial systems in
order to permit empirical observation and reflection on the proposed theory. The major
outcome of the practice is the artwork "Breathing", a hybrid creature made of a living
organism (a plant) and an artificial system. The creature responds to its environment
through movement, light and the noise of its mechanical parts and interacts with the
observer through his/her act of breathing. This work is the result of an investigation into
plants as sensitive agents for the creation of art. The intention was to explore new forms of
artistic experience through the dialogue of natural and artificial processes