Church Belles: An Interactive System and Composition Using Real-World Metaphors

This paper presents a brief review of current literature detailing some of the issues and trends in composition and performance with interactive music systems. Of particular interest is how musicians interact with a separate machine entity that exercises agency over the creative process. The use of real-world metaphors as a strategy for increasing audience engagement is also discussed. The composition and system Church Belles is presented, analyzed and evaluated in terms of its architecture, how it relates to existing studies of musician-machine creative interaction and how the use of a real-world metaphor can promote audience perceptions of liveness. This develops previous NIME work by offering a detailed case study of the development process of both a system and a piece for popular, non-improvisational vocal/guitar music. keywords: Interactive music systems, real-world, metaphor, physical model, popular musi

Church Belles: An Interactive System and Composition Using Real-World Metaphors: In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University

Church Belles explores how creating and using an interactive system for popular songwriting based on a physical metaphor impacts the composition process and the liveness of performances. Composing the piece was central to the research process (Candy and Edmonds, 2018) which involved a cyclical, iterative process of literature review, system-building/composing and reflection. While common in more experimental styles, the use of interactive music systems in popular music tends to be limited (Marchini et al, 2017). Several studies have demonstrated the potential for physical metaphors to be used as a design strategy for interactive systems (Johnston et al, 2009) that both facilitates audience understanding and focuses the compositional process. In this piece, church bells were selected as the metaphor they are a highly familiar cultural object with a simple physical mechanism, capable of producing complex timbres and unpredictable rhythms. Church Belles explores the impact of using an interactive system throughout the songwriting process. Creating the system therefore began before any songwriting took place, maximising the system’s influence over each stage of the composition. The research reveals strategies for working with interactive systems in highly-structured popular music contexts, which have been disseminated by a paper and demonstration at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) (Waite, 2016). Performances with the piece demonstrate high levels of several aspects of liveness (Sanden, 2013). Findings have been shared with international academic and professional audiences at Innovations in Music 2017 (London); Tracking the Creative Process in Music 2017 (Huddersfield) and Loop 2017 (Berlin). Recordings of the piece and accompanying commentary have been published online and the piece has been performed at Sonorities 2016 (Queen’s University), MTI concerts (De Montfort University) and NoiseFloor (Staffordshire University). The software for the piece is available for free download

PROSIDING Teknologi Virtual dan Preservasi Nilai Tradisi dalam Seni Pertunjukan

Perubahan dinamika budaya perlu diperhatikan guna melestarikan nilai-nilai tradisional dalam seni pertunjukan. Dalam mewariskan nilai-nilai seni tradisional, perubahan pola pikir antargenerasi juga menjadi pertimbangan yang serius. Dalam perkembangan teknologi digital, pola pikir generasi mile-nial sangat praktis dan pragmatis terhadap apapun. Perkembangan teknologi digital memungkinkan para milenial menikmati berbagai aktivitas hiburan online tanpa harus mengikuti pagelaran seni tradi-sional. Diperlukan strategi dalam memanfaatkan keakraban generasi milenial dan teknologi untuk melestarikan nilai-nilai tradisional seni pertunjukan. Salah satu metode yang dapat digunakan adalah dengan menggunakan teknologi virtual. Artikel inimenggunakan studi literatur untuk membahas topik penggunaan teknologi virtual untuk melestarikan nilai-nilai tradisional dalam seni pertunjukan. Alha-sil, teknologi virtual dapat menampilkan kesenian tradisional dalam bentuk yang baru dan lebih inter-aktif. Teknologi ini juga sangat membantu proses pembelajaran seni pertunjukan tradisional. Tentu-nya hal ini berperan dalam pelestarian nilai seni tradisi. Selain itu, teknologi virtual juga dapat diguna-kan untuk memperkuat penyampaian pesan dari seniman kepada penonton. Kata kunci: virtual, seni, pertunjukan, digital, dan tradis

Corporalité en performance électroacoustique : une approche

Mémoire en recherche-créationCe mémoire de maîtrise synthétise la démarche de recherche qui a mené à la création des œuvres audiovisuelles Interférences (String Network), DATANOISE et Pharmacologie, ainsi qu’à deux études de musique fixée. Ce texte propose une réflexion sur les possibilités d’utilisation des technologies numériques en temps réel, dans un contexte de performance électroacoustique. Il vise à développer des stratégies afin de pouvoir interpréter et incarner physiquement les musiques numériques. Les notions de risque, de collaboration et de symbolique en musique sont abordées. Ce mémoire défend la création de dispositifs audiovisuels spécifiques comme élément constituant de l’œuvre artistique. Il tend vers une corporalité de l’œuvre électroacoustique, par la recherche d’adéquation entre la nature des outils utilisés, l’attitude corporelle de l’interprète, la symbolique des éléments visibles, et le contenu de la composition musicale.This Master’s thesis summarizes the the research process that led to the creation of audiovisual works Interférences (String Network), DATANOISE and Pharmacologie, as well as two studies of fixed music. This text proposes a reflection on the possibilities of using digital technologies in real time, in a context of electroacoustic performance. It aims to develop strategies to perform and embody digital music. The notions of risk, collaboration and symbolism in music are discussed. This thesis defends the creation of specific audiovisual devices as constituent element of the artistic work. It tends towards a corporality of the electroacoustic work, by the search of adequacy between the nature of the tools used, the bodily attitude of the interpreter, the symbolism of the visible elements, and the content of the musical composition

A Meta-interactive Compositional Approach that Fosters Musical Emergence through Ludic Expressivity

The concept of gamified interactive models and its novel extensions, such as playification, has been widely approached in order to engage users in many fields. In fields such as HCI and AI, however, these approaches were not yet employed for supporting users to create different forms of artworks, like a musical corpus. While allowing novel forms of interactivity with partially-autonomous systems, these techniques could also foster the emergence of artworks not limited to experts. Hence, in this paper we introduce the concept of meta-interactivity for compositional interfaces, which extends an individual's capabilities by the translation of an effort into a proficiency. We present how this approach can be effective through a novel system that enables non-experts to compose coherent musical pieces through the use of imagetic elements in a virtual environment. We conduct experiments with a population of musical experts and non-experts, showing that non-experts were able to learn and create high-quality musical productions through our interactive approach

Networks of Liveness in Singer-Songwriting: A practice-based enquiry into developing audio-visual interactive systems and creative strategies for composition and performance.

This enquiry explores the creation and use of computer-based, real-time interactive audio-visual systems for the composition and performance of popular music by solo artists. Using a practice-based methodology, research questions are identified that relate to the impact of incorporating interactive systems into the songwriting process and the liveness of the performances with them. Four approaches to the creation of interactive systems are identified: creating explorative-generative tools, multiple tools for guitar/vocal pieces, typing systems and audio-visual metaphors. A portfolio of ten pieces that use these approaches was developed for live performance. A model of the songwriting process is presented that incorporates system-building and strategies are identified for reconciling the indeterminate, electronic audio output of the system with composed popular music features and instrumental/vocal output. The four system approaches and ten pieces are compared in terms of four aspects of liveness, derived from current theories. It was found that, in terms of overall liveness, a unity to system design facilitated both technological and aesthetic connections between the composition, the system processes and the audio and visual outputs. However, there was considerable variation between the four system approaches in terms of the different aspects of liveness. The enquiry concludes by identifying strategies for maximising liveness in the different system approaches and discussing the connections between liveness and the songwriting process

Scenography of immersive virtual musical instruments

International audienceImmersive Virtual Musical Instruments (IVMIs) can be considered as the meeting between Music Technology and Virtual Reality. Being both musical instruments and elements of Virtual Environments , IVMIs require a transversal approach from their designers, in particular when the final aim is to play them in front of an audience , as part of a scenography. In this paper, we combine the main constraints of musical performances and Virtual Reality applications into a set of dimensions, meant to extensively describe IVMIs stage setups. A number of existing stage setups are then classified using these dimensions, explaining how they were used to showcase live virtual performances and discussing their scenographic level