Designing and Composing for Interdependent Collaborative Performance with Physics-Based Virtual Instruments

Interdependent collaboration is a system of live musical performance in which performers can directly manipulate each other’s musical outcomes. While most collaborative musical systems implement electronic communication channels between players that allow for parameter mappings, remote transmissions of actions and intentions, or exchanges of musical fragments, they interrupt the energy continuum between gesture and sound, breaking our cognitive representation of gesture to sound dynamics. Physics-based virtual instruments allow for acoustically and physically plausible behaviors that are related to (and can be extended beyond) our experience of the physical world. They inherently maintain and respect a representation of the gesture to sound energy continuum. This research explores the design and implementation of custom physics-based virtual instruments for realtime interdependent collaborative performance. It leverages the inherently physically plausible behaviors of physics-based models to create dynamic, nuanced, and expressive interconnections between performers. Design considerations, criteria, and frameworks are distilled from the literature in order to develop three new physics-based virtual instruments and associated compositions intended for dissemination and live performance by the electronic music and instrumental music communities. Conceptual, technical, and artistic details and challenges are described, and reflections and evaluations by the composer-designer and performers are documented

DIY in Early Live Electroacoustic Music: John Cage, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, and the Migration of Live Electronics from the Studio to Performance

This research examines early live electronic works by Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, and John Cage—three influential American experimental music composers who designed, built, and recontextualized electronics for live performance—and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) aesthetic embodied by their instruments and the compositions written for them. This dissertation serves as a presentation of original research into the earliest composers of live electronic works and the necessary DIY approach used in building independent systems. Previous research on the DIY perspectives in music often touch on the grass-roots nature of contemporary electroacoustic systems but there is not yet research specific to the DIY approach taken by these three composers, who collaborated together on the earliest live electronic systems used in performance in the late 1960s and 1970s. Composers today continue to be influenced by the works of Mumma, Tudor, and Cage as they follow the same DIY traditions in the experimentation and implementation of circuitry and adaptation of emerging technologies in instrument design. The DIY tradition continues within the circuit design and engineering techniques that continue to be implemented in systems that are customized and tailored specifically for music performance. These individualistic and self-built systems are reflective of the composer’s skills in and adaptability to nascent technologies. Innovation and experimentalism have become standard procedure for today’s composers, who are driven forward to create, as well as to adapt, electronics for performance and the underlying DIY aesthetic of electroacoustic systems can be credited as far back as the instruments and systems build for live performance in the late 1960s and 1970s (known as live electronics), which was a period of transition of electronics from the studio to live performance. The efforts of Mumma, Tudor, and Cage remain influential on composers and performers today and it is important to recognize how the concept of DIY existed in their works as well as push forward a new area of research into the significance of DIY in music and technology

That Syncing Feeling: Networked Strategies for Enabling Ensemble Creativity in iPad Musicians

The group experience of synchronisation is a key aspect of ensemble musical performance. This paper presents a number of strategies for syncing performance information across networked iPad-instruments to enable creativity among an ensemble of improvising musicians. Acoustic instrumentalists sync without mechanical intervention. Electronic instruments frequently synchronise rhythm using MIDI or OSC connections. In contrast, our system syncs other aspects of performance, such as tonality, instrument functions, and gesture classifications, to support and enhance improvised performance. Over a number of performances with an iPad and percussion group, Ensemble Metatone, various syncing scenarios have been explored that support, extend, and disrupt ensemble creativity

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Live Coding

Open Access peer reviewed papers on live coding published at the 1st International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) in Leeds

What\u27s News At Rhode Island College

https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/whats_news/1045/thumbnail.jp

Establishing a laptop orchestra in South Africa : an emic-centred inquiry into computer music performance

Dissertation (MMus (Music Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2022.A few months into the final year of my undergraduate degree an opportunity emerged to oversee and coordinate the technical and organisational aspects of UPLOrc (University of Pretoria Laptop Orchestra), an ensemble of laptops consisting of undergraduate and post-graduate students whose focus is to explore collective live coding practices. In addition to coordinating the activities of UPLOrc, in April 2020 I was invited to collaborate with SuperContinent, a networked live coding ensemble whose members are located across various continents at a minimum distance of more than 500 kilometres apart. A qualitatively-driven mixed-methods research paradigm was implemented guiding the collection of data from multiple sources in order to obtain a broader understanding of the complexities involved with live coding in collaborative contexts. A netnographic methodology was chosen for the qualitative component of this research, and incorporated an intersecting secondary quantitative component in the form of a survey administered to members of the networked performance community. The research is presented from an emic (insider’s) perspective in the form of an autoethnographic account of my experiences as a performer and instructor of live-coded music. Adopting the perspective of an insider initiated a process of critical self-reflection in which I attempted to understand my role as a student, teacher and collaborator in both performance and educational contexts. The procedures implemented in this research prompted by my collaboration, communication, active participation, and performance with the members of both ensembles over a two-year period, have allowed me to realise the purpose and power of collaborative networked live coding in terms of its potential for cultivating transformative spaces for musical creativity. In addition, conducting this research has provided me with the opportunity to begin the process of building an identity as a live coder, an identity that is multifaceted, complex and constantly negotiated no matter the context in which it operates.MusicMMus (Music Technology)Unrestricte

Collaboration and embodiment in networked music interfaces for live performance

Research regarding liveness and embodiment in electronic music has tended to explore the relationship of bodies and instruments, audience perception, interfaces, and shifting definitions, less theoretical and empirical study has considered network situations, perhaps given their relative cultural novelty. Network music has seen many advances since the time of the Telharmonium, including the invention of the personal computer and the widespread proliferation of internet connectivity. These advances have fostered a unique approach to live electronic music that facilitates collaboration in a field where solo performance is perhaps more common. This thesis explores the design of network music interfaces, and how those interfaces mediate collaborations. Three new network music system interfaces, each using different a different paradigm for interface design are presented in this study. One an instrument for creating modular feedback lattices. Another is a three dimensional virtual pattern sequencer. And the last is a web based collaborative live coding language. Accompanying each system is an evaluation using quantitative and qualitative analysis to frame these instruments in a larger context regarding network music. The results highlight important themes concerning the design of networked interfaces, and the attitudes of musicians regarding networked collaborations

Apps, Agents, and Improvisation: Ensemble Interaction with Touch-Screen Digital Musical Instruments

This thesis concerns the making and performing of music with new digital musical instruments (DMIs) designed for ensemble performance. While computer music has advanced to the point where a huge variety of digital instruments are common in educational, recreational, and professional music-making, these instruments rarely seek to enhance the ensemble context in which they are used. Interaction models that map individual gestures to sound have been previously studied, but the interactions of ensembles within these models are not well understood. In this research, new ensemble-focussed instruments have been designed and deployed in an ongoing artistic practice. These instruments have also been evaluated to find out whether, and if so how, they affect the ensembles and music that is made with them. Throughout this thesis, six ensemble-focussed DMIs are introduced for mobile touch-screen computers. A series of improvised rehearsals and performances leads to the identification of a vocabulary of continuous performative touch-gestures and a system for tracking these collaborative performances in real time using tools from machine learning. The tracking system is posed as an intelligent agent that can continually analyse the gestural states of performers, and trigger a response in the performers' user interfaces at appropriate moments. The hypothesis is that the agent interaction and UI response can enhance improvised performances, allowing performers to better explore creative interactions with each other, produce better music, and have a more enjoyable experience. Two formal studies are described where participants rate their perceptions of improvised performances with a variety of designs for agent-app interaction. The first, with three expert performers, informed refinements for a set of apps. The most successful interface was redesigned and investigated further in a second study with 16 non-expert participants. In the final interface, each performer freely improvised with a limited number of notes; at moments of peak gestural change, the agent presented users with the opportunity to try different notes. This interface is shown to produce performances that are longer, as well as demonstrate improved perceptions of musical structure, group interaction, enjoyment and overall quality. Overall, this research examined ensemble DMI performance in unprecedented scope and detail, with more than 150 interaction sessions recorded. Informed by the results of lab and field studies using quantitative and qualitative methods, four generations of ensemble-focussed interface have been developed and refined. The results of the most recent studies assure us that the intelligent agent interaction does enhance improvised performances

Mustang Daily, April 23, 1998

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/studentnewspaper/6289/thumbnail.jp