Towards an interactive framework for robot dancing applications

Estágio realizado no INESC-Porto e orientado pelo Prof. Doutor Fabien GouyonTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores - Major Telecomunicações. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Ontology of music performance variation

Performance variation in rhythm determines the extent that humans perceive and feel the effect of rhythmic pulsation and music in general. In many cases, these rhythmic variations can be linked to percussive performance. Such percussive performance variations are often absent in current percussive rhythmic models. The purpose of this thesis is to present an interactive computer model, called the PD-103, that simulates the micro-variations in human percussive performance. This thesis makes three main contributions to existing knowledge: firstly, by formalising a new method for modelling percussive performance; secondly, by developing a new compositional software tool called the PD-103 that models human percussive performance, and finally, by creating a portfolio of different musical styles to demonstrate the capabilities of the software. A large database of recorded samples are classified into zones based upon the vibrational characteristics of the instruments, to model timbral variation in human percussive performance. The degree of timbral variation is governed by principles of biomechanics and human percussive performance. A fuzzy logic algorithm is applied to analyse current and first-order sample selection in order to formulate an ontological description of music performance variation. Asynchrony values were extracted from recorded performances of three different performance skill levels to create \timing fingerprints" which characterise unique features to each percussionist. The PD-103 uses real performance timing data to determine asynchrony values for each synthesised note. The spectral content of the sample database forms a three-dimensional loudness/timbre space, intersecting instrumental behaviour with music composition. The reparameterisation of the sample database, following the analysis of loudness, spectral flatness, and spectral centroid, provides an opportunity to explore the timbral variations inherent in percussion instruments, to creatively explore dimensions of timbre. The PD-103 was used to create a music portfolio exploring different rhythmic possibilities with a focus on meso-periodic rhythms common to parts of West Africa, jazz drumming, and electroacoustic music. The portfolio also includes new timbral percussive works based on spectral features and demonstrates the central aim of this thesis, which is the creation of a new compositional software tool that integrates human percussive performance and subsequently extends this model to different genres of music

Sculpting Unrealities: Using Machine Learning to Control Audiovisual Compositions in Virtual Reality

This thesis explores the use of interactive machine learning (IML) techniques to control audiovisual compositions within the emerging medium of virtual reality (VR). Accompanying the text is a portfolio of original compositions and open-source software. These research outputs represent the practical elements of the project that help to shed light on the core research question: how can IML techniques be used to control audiovisual compositions in VR? In order to find some answers to this question, it was broken down into its constituent elements. To situate the research, an exploration of the contemporary field of audiovisual art locates the practice between the areas of visual music and generative AV. This exploration of the field results in a new method of categorising the constituent practices. The practice of audiovisual composition is then explored, focusing on the concept of equality. It is found that, throughout the literature, audiovisual artists aim to treat audio and visual material equally. This is interpreted as a desire for balance between the audio and visual material. This concept is then examined in the context of VR. A feeling of presence is found to be central to this new medium and is identified as an important consideration for the audiovisual composer in addition to the senses of sight and sound. Several new terms are formulated which provide the means by which the compositions within the portfolio are analysed. A control system, based on IML techniques, is developed called the Neural AV Mapper. This is used to develop a compositional methodology through the creation of several studies. The outcomes from these studies are incorporated into two live performance pieces, Ventriloquy I and Ventriloquy II. These pieces showcase the use of IML techniques to control audiovisual compositions in a live performance context. The lessons learned from these pieces are incorporated into the development of the ImmersAV toolkit. This open-source software toolkit was built specifically to allow for the exploration of the IML control paradigm within VR. The toolkit provides the means by which the immersive audiovisual compositions, Obj_#3 and Ag Fás Ar Ais Arís are created. Obj_#3 takes the form of an immersive audiovisual sculpture that can be manipulated in real-time by the user. The title of the thesis references the physical act of sculpting audiovisual material. It also refers to the ability of VR to create alternate realities that are not bound to the physics of real-life. This exploration of unrealities emerges as an important aspect of the medium. The final piece in the portfolio, Ag Fás Ar Ais Arís takes the knowledge gained from the earlier work and pushes the boundaries to maximise the potential of the medium and the material

Topology of spatial texture in the acousmatic medium

This research explores the dynamic fabric of experienced space in acousmatic music. The topology of spatial texture is a network of concepts treating music as a flexible, textural space, which deforms, shapes, and transforms in time. A comprehensive terminology is introduced, along with five fixed-media electroacoustic compositions, which exemplify a manifestation of spatial texture in composition and musical thinking. The theory draws from research on the cross-modality of texture perception, philosophical discourse on embodied meaning, physics, psychology of visual art, and discourse on space in acousmatic music. Several different structural perspectives are discussed, which reveal how spatial texture incorporates lower sound-structural levels, materiality, states and processes, motion, global networks and terrains, and relationships between space and time. Emphasis is put on visual and physical connections with spatiality in the acousmatic experience: cogency in spatial structure and dynamics reinforces links among modalities. The concepts and terminology are intended as a contribution to theory in the acousmatic medium, relevant to composition, analysis, and listening. The music represents an aesthetic orientation which emphasises materiality and morphology in texture, transformative processes, spatial design, and spatiotemporal polyvalence

Textile sensors for ECG and respiratory frequency on swimsuits

Swimming constitutes one of the most demanding sports regarding technique. Years of training are necessary to master each one of the four styles. An important improvement and help for trainers would be a swimsuit that could provide information during training. This paper presents the research undertaken to develop textile sensors that will be used in a swimsuit. This paper will address ECG and respiratory frequency sensors and respective signals. The behaviour of the proposed sensors in different conditions (dry and wet environments) will be presented and discussed. The influence of movement on the signal quality and further interpretation, both by the muscular electrical signals as well as by the displacement of the electrodes, will be addressed. Other very important issue in swimming is drag. One approach that can reduce total drag consists in using compression. However, compressed fabrics will most likely modify the textile sensors’Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/EEA-ELC/70803/200

Upholding a Modernist Mentality: Experimentalism and Neo-tonality in the Symphonies of Einojuhani Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016) is one of the most significant Finnish composers to emerge after Sibelius, and his music has been highly acclaimed for its originality and accessibility. After experimenting with modernism in the 1960s, his more approachable recent style has often been misunderstood. This thesis will consider this music, and re-consider terms describing it, such as “mystical”, “neo-Romantic” and “postmodern”, which are used in a variety of music criticism and in some biographical accounts. As such, it offers a new understanding of Rautavaara’s idiom, its larger significance, and its relationship with broader, historical trends within the Long Twentieth Century. This thesis addresses the larger, integrated role of modernism in Rautavaara’s music within the multi-stylistic context of contemporary composition. Modernism is examined both in technical, stylistic terms as well as a more general mentality of progress, arguing that both definitions have informed Rautavaara’s recent music more than has been acknowledged. After considering modernism in its broadest terms and in the more specific Finnish context, the thesis draws on the concepts of “reactive modernism” (J.P.E. Harper-Scott) and the “moderate mainstream” (Arnold Whittall) to argue that, in the late-twentieth century, Rautavaara continues an individualistic, critical approach that did not reject either “modern” or “anachronistic” techniques. Musical analyses focussing on the eight symphonies, several of which have received no previous detailed discussion, support a new contextualisation of Rautavaara’s entire symphonic cycle as a major pillar of his output. These analytical chapters work inwards from differing experiences of global form, to surface-level thematic processes, to melodic and harmonic processes, in particular how Rautavaara reconciles dodecaphonic and tonal thinking. Issues of symmetry and duality occur throughout. From these close readings, contextual discussion assesses Rautavaara’s legacy, focusing on his mentorship of younger Finnish composers, as well as determining common and recurring compositional features

A common role for astrocytes in rhythmic behaviours?

Authors acknowledge the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association UK (Miles/Apr18/863-791) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; BB/M021793/1) for their funding and support.Astrocytes are a functionally diverse form of glial cell involved in various aspects of nervous system infrastructure, from the metabolic and structural support of neurons to direct neuromodulation of synaptic activity. Investigating how astrocytes behave in functionally related circuits may help us understand whether there is any conserved logic to the role of astrocytes within neuronal networks. Astrocytes are implicated as key neuromodulatory cells within neural circuits that control a number of rhythmic behaviours such as breathing, locomotion and circadian sleep-wake cycles. In this review, we examine the evidence that astrocytes are directly involved in the regulation of the neural circuits underlying six different rhythmic behaviours: locomotion, breathing, chewing, gastrointestinal motility, circadian sleep-wake cycles and oscillatory feeding behaviour. We discuss how astrocytes are integrated into the neuronal networks that regulate these behaviours, and identify the potential gliotransmission signalling mechanisms involved. From reviewing the evidence of astrocytic involvement in a range of rhythmic behaviours, we reveal a heterogenous array of gliotransmission mechanisms, which help to regulate neuronal networks. However, we also observe an intriguing thread of commonality, in the form of purinergic gliotransmission, which is frequently utilised to facilitate feedback inhibition within rhythmic networks to constrain a given behaviour within its operational range.PostprintPeer reviewe

Villa-Lobos\u27s Compositional Techniques and Treatment of Folk Melodies in Cirandas for Piano

Despite his significance as the most important Latin American composer of the twentieth century, serious analytical studies on the music of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos are still few and far between. Recent scholarship has started to demystify the figure of Villa-Lobos as an intuitive composer with no technique, revealing an artist that strove to develop an idiosyncratic musical language. The present document aims to contribute to this new trend in Villa-Lobos’s scholarship by analyzing pieces from the piano cycle Cirandas, W220, considered one of the most important works from the composer’s mature style. Each of the sixteen pieces from the set is based on a different ciranda or round song, therefore sharing similar backgrounds and compositional goals. By comparing the settings of folk songs from some of these pieces, it was possible to identify and analyze recurring compositional practices used by Villa-Lobos to manipulate the folk material. Overviews of the evolution of Villa-Lobos’s writing for piano and his relationship with Brazilian folk music are followed by an account of the genesis of Cirandas as well as of Cirandinhas, a set of round songs of easier execution by the same composer. A study of the general characteristics of Cirandas leads to a detailed examination of the compositional techniques identified in the set. Each technique is illustrated by excerpts from several movements, showing its development through structures of different complexity. Comparisons with settings of the same folk tunes found in two other works (Cirandinhas and Guia prático) by the composer reveal the extent to which Villa-Lobos often molded the round songs to become an organic element of the musical texture. Analytical models used include theories of voice-leading parsimony by Adrian Childs and Richard Cohn, Jay Rahn’s concept of scale heterophormism in incomplete collections, Tymoczko’s scale networks, theories of pitch-class symmetry by Antokoletz and Straus, Solomon’s expanded table of pitch-class sets, as well as models inferred from Villa-Lobos’s music by Duarte, Oliveira, Salles, Souza Lima, Tygel, Vetromilla, and Gustavo Schafaschek. Appendixes include an annotated bibliography of scholarship on Cirandas available in English and Portuguese