Musical Borrowing in Sonification

Sonification presents some challenges in communicating information, particularly because of the large difference between possible data to sound mappings and cognitively valid mappings. It is an information transmission process which can be described through the Shannon-Weaver Theory of Mathematical Communication. Musical borrowing is proposed as a method in sonification which can aid the information transmission process as the composer’s and listener’s shared musical knowledge is used. This article describes the compositional process of Wasgiischwashäsch (2017) which uses Rossini’s William Tell Overture (1829) to sonify datasets relating to climate change in Switzerland. It concludes that the familiarity of audiences with the original piece, and the humorous effect produced by the distortion of a well-known piece, contribute to a more effective transmission process

Recomposing Beethoven with Music Neurotechnology

Musicians have an extraordinary opportunity today to develop new approaches to composition that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Imagine if you could play a musical instrument with signals detected directly from your brain. Would it be possible to generate music representing brain activity? What would the music of our brains sound like? These are some of the questions addressed by research into Music Neurotechnology , which is an emerging field at the crossroads of music, technology and neuroscience. There has been a great number of very interesting initiatives within the last decade or so to sonify brainwaves, some of which might indeed be useful for creative musical purposes. Also, the burgeoning field of Brain-Computer Music Interfacing (BCMI) is developing powerful methods to generate music in real-time by means of brainwave signals some initiatives of which are even looking into harnessing the potential of biomedically uncertified low-cost equipment for BCMI applications. However, in this chapter we discuss an approach that goes beyond sonification of brainwaves and BCMI. We introduce algorithms that we have been developing to compose orchestral music off-line with fMRI brain scans. The chapter is concerned with the impact of Music Neurotechnology to the field of Computer-Aided Composition (CAC). As we are not concerned with real-time interaction here, we have an opportunity to take advantage of the fMRI brain scanning method. This method is deemed too cumbersome for real-time applications, but considerably more powerful and informative than EEG (electroencephalogram) scanning, which is the method used in sonification and BCMI research. The composition methods introduced below were developed in OpenMusic, originally to generate materials for two symphonies by Miranda: Symphony of Minds Listening (2013) and Corpus Callosum (2015). And they were subsequently used to compose Shockwaves (2015) a violin concertino for orchestra. The discussions in this chapter will be mostly in the context of Symphony of Minds Listening and Corpus Callosum . We begin the chapter by briefly introducing Miranda’s approach to composing with the aid of computers, focusing on using algorithmically generated materials. Then we introduce the compositions Symphony of Minds Listening and Corpus Callosum. Next, we focus on the technical details of collecting and handling fMRI data, followed by an overview of the OpenMusic patches that we developed for this project and an explanation of how ATO-MS was used to generate orchestrations based on fMRI information. The chapter ends with a brief concluding discussion and acknowledgements to contributors and sponsors

Application of Musical Computing to Creating a Dynamic Reconfigurable Multilayered Chamber Orchestra Composition

With increasing virtualization and the recognition that today’s virtual computers are faster than hardware computers of 10 years ago, modes of computation are now limited only by the imagination. Pulsed Melodic Affective Processing (PMAP) is an unconventional computation protocol that makes affective computation more human-friendly by making it audible. Data sounds like the emotion it carries. PMAP has been demonstrated in nonmusical applications, e.g. quantum computer entanglement and stock market trading. This article presents a musical application and demonstration of PMAP: a dynamic reconfigurable score for acoustic orchestral performance, in which the orchestra acts as a PMAP half-adder to add two numbers. </jats:p

Soundsense: Sonifying pryroelectric sensor data for an interactive media event

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)Collaborations between artists, engineers, and scientists often occur when creating new media works. These interdisciplinary efforts must overcome the ideals and practical-limitations inherent in both artistic and research pursuits. In turn, successful projects may truly be greater than the sum of their parts, enabling each collaborator to gain insight into their own work. soundSense, a cooperative effort between engineers, composers, and other specialists, sonifies pyroelectic sensor data to create a novel interactive-media event. Signals generated by multiplexing pyroelectric detectors inform datadriven audio and visual displays articulating – in real-time – the presence and motion of individuals within the sensed space

Programmability and management of software-defined network infrastructures

In a landscape where software-based solutions are evermore central in the design, development and deployment of innovative solutions for communication networks, new challenges arise, related to how to best exploit the new solutions made available by technological advancements. The objective of this Thesis is to consolidate and improve some recent solutions for programmability, management, monitoring and provisioning in software-based infrastructures, as well as to propose new solutions for service deployment, management and monitoring over softwarized domains, along with working implementations, validating each point with punctual experimental validations and performance evaluations. The treatise starts by introducing the key concepts the research work is based upon, then the main research activities performed during the three years of PhD studies are presented. These include a high-level interface for network programmability over heterogeneous softwarized domains, an implementation of a protocol for service function chaining over non-programmable networks for multi-domain orchestration, a modular system for unified monitoring of softwarized infrastructures, a protocol for the employment of unused channels to augment the capabilities of the softwarized infrastructure, and a XaaS-aware orchestrator designed to operate over Fog computing scenarios

Data Sonification in Creative Practice

Sonification is the process of data transmission with non-speech audio. While finding increasing acceptance as a scientific method, particularly where a visual representation of data is inadequate, it is still often derided as a ‘gimmick’. Composers have also shown growing interest in sonification as a compositional method. Both in science and in music, the criticism towards this method relates to poor aesthetics and gratuitous applications. This thesis aims to address these issues through an accompanying portfolio of pieces which use sonification as a compositional tool. It establishes the principles of ‘musification’, which can be defined as a sonification which uses musical structures; a sonification organised by musical principles. The practice-as-research portfolio explores a number of data sources, musical genres and science-music collaborations. The main contributions to knowledge derived from the project are a portfolio of compositions, a compositional framework for sonification and an evaluation framework for musification. This thesis demonstrates the validity of practice-as-research as a methodology in sonification research

Musical Cities

Musical Cities represents an innovative approach to scholarly research and dissemination. A digital and interactive 'book', it explores the rhythms of our cities, and the role they play in our everyday urban lives, through the use of sound and music. Sara Adhitya first discusses why we should listen to urban rhythms in order to design more liveable and sustainable cities, before demonstrating how we can do so through various acoustic communication techniques. Using audio-visual examples, Musical Cities takes the ‘listener’ on an interactive journey, revealing how sound and music can be used to represent, compose, perform and interact with the city. Through case studies of urban projects developed in Paris, Perth, Venice and London, Adhitya demonstrates how the power of music, and the practice of listening, can help us to compose more accessible, inclusive, engaging, enjoyable, and ultimately more sustainable cities

Musical Cities

Musical Cities represents an innovative approach to scholarly research and dissemination. A digital and interactive 'book', it explores the rhythms of our cities, and the role they play in our everyday urban lives, through the use of sound and music. Sara Adhitya first discusses why we should listen to urban rhythms in order to design more liveable and sustainable cities, before demonstrating how we can do so through various acoustic communication techniques. Using audio-visual examples, Musical Cities takes the ‘listener’ on an interactive journey, revealing how sound and music can be used to represent, compose, perform and interact with the city. Through case studies of urban projects developed in Paris, Perth, Venice and London, Adhitya demonstrates how the power of music, and the practice of listening, can help us to compose more accessible, inclusive, engaging, enjoyable, and ultimately more sustainable cities