Cybernetic configurations: characteristics of interactivity in the digital arts.

Cybernetic theory and interactive media art share much in common, including an interest in human relationships with technology, and in what their interactions reveal about both human and technological agency. In this paper we identify four characteristics of cybernetic systems and discuss their relevance to interactive sound art. We hope to contribute to a critical lexicon around the cybernetic nature of interactive artworks more broadly, and to promote further engagement with the principles of cybernetics amongst electronic and digital arts practitioners and scholars

Cybernetic configurations: characteristics of interactivity in the digital arts.

Cybernetic theory and interactive media art share much in common, including an interest in human relationships with technology, and in what their interactions reveal about both human and technological agency. In this paper we identify four characteristics of cybernetic systems and discuss their relevance to interactive sound art. We hope to contribute to a critical lexicon around the cybernetic nature of interactive artworks more broadly, and to promote further engagement with the principles of cybernetics amongst electronic and digital arts practitioners and scholars

Techniques for generative melodies inspired by music cognition

This article presents a series of algorithmic techniques for melody generation, inspired by models of music cognition. The techniques are designed for interactive composition, and so privilege brevity, simplicity, and flexibility over fidelity to the underlying models. The cognitive models canvassed span gestalt, preference rule, and statistical learning perspectives; this is a diverse collection with a common thread—the centrality of “expectations” to music cognition. We operationalize some recurrent themes across this collection as probabilistic descriptions of melodic tendency, codifying them as stochastic melody-generation techniques. The techniques are combined into a concise melody generator, with salient parameters exposed for ready manipulation in real time. These techniques may be especially relevant to algorithmic composers, the live-coding community, and to music psychologists and theorists interested in how computational interpretations of cognitive models “sound” in practice

Design Considerations for Real-Time Collaboration with Creative Artificial Intelligence

Machines incorporating techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning can work with human users on a moment-to-moment, real-time basis to generate creative outcomes, performances and artefacts. We define such systems collaborative, creative AI systems, and in this article, consider the theoretical and practical considerations needed for their design so as to support improvisation, performance and co-creation through real-time, sustained, moment-to-moment interaction. We begin by providing an overview of creative AI systems, examining strengths, opportunities and criticisms in order to draw out the key considerations when designing AI for human creative collaboration. We argue that the artistic goals and creative process should be first and foremost in any design. We then draw from a range of research that looks at human collaboration and teamwork, to examine features that support trust, cooperation, shared awareness and a shared information space. We highlight the importance of understanding the scope and perception of two-way communication between human and machine agents in order to support reflection on conflict, error, evaluation and flow. We conclude with a summary of the range of design challenges for building such systems in provoking, challenging and enhancing human creative activity through their creative agency

Generation in context: an exploratory method for musical enquiry

This paper discusses a method, Generation in Context, for interrogating theories of music analysis and music perception. Given an analytic theory, the method consists of creating a generative process that implements the theory in reverse. Instead of using the theory to create analyses from scores, the theory is used to generate scores from analyses. Subjective evaluation of the quality of the musical output provides a mechanism for testing the theory in a contextually robust fashion. The method is exploratory, meaning that in addition to testing extant theories it provides a general mechanism for generating new theoretical insights. We outline our initial explorations in the use of generative processes for music research, and we discuss how generative processes provide evidence as to the veracity of theories about how music is experienced, with insights into how these theories may be improved and, concurrently, provide new techniques for music creation. We conclude that Generation in Context will help reveal new perspectives on our understanding of music

Freshwater ecoacoustics as a tool for continuous ecosystem monitoring

Copyright by the Ecological Society of AmericaPassive acoustic monitoring is gaining popularity in ecology as a practical and non-invasive approach to surveying ecosystems. This technique is increasingly being used to monitor terrestrial systems, particularly bird populations, given that it can help to track temporal dynamics of populations and ecosystem health without the need for expensive resampling. We suggest that underwater acoustic monitoring presents a viable, non-invasive, and largely unexplored approach to monitoring freshwater ecosystems, yielding information about three key ecological elements of aquatic environments – (1) fishes, (2) macroinvertebrates, and (3) physicochemical processes – as well as providing data on anthropogenic noise levels. We survey the literature on this approach, which is substantial but scattered across disciplines, and call for more cross-disciplinary work on recording and analysis techniques. We also discuss technical issues and knowledge gaps, including background noise, spatiotemporal variation, and the need for centralized reference collection repositories. These challenges need to be overcome before the full potential of passive acoustics in dynamic detection of biophysical processes can be realized and used to inform conservation practitioners and managers

In a Silent Way: Communication between AI and improvising musicians beyond sound

Collaboration is built on trust, and establishing trust with a creative Artificial Intelligence is difficult when the decision process or internal state driving its behaviour isn't exposed. When human musicians improvise together, a number of extra-musical cues are used to augment musical communication and expose mental or emotional states which affect musical decisions and the effectiveness of the collaboration. We developed a collaborative improvising AI drummer that communicates its confidence through an emoticon-based visualisation. The AI was trained on musical performance data, as well as real-time skin conductance, of musicians improvising with professional drummers, exposing both musical and extra-musical cues to inform its generative process. Uni- and bi-directional extra-musical communication with real and false values were tested by experienced improvising musicians. Each condition was evaluated using the FSS-2 questionnaire, as a proxy for musical engagement. The results show a positive correlation between extra-musical communication of machine internal state and human musical engagement

Computational Systems for Music Improvisation

Computational music systems that afford improvised creative interaction in real time are often designed for a specific improviser and performance style. As such the field is diverse, fragmented and lacks a coherent framework. Through analysis of examples in the field we identify key areas of concern in the design of new systems, which we use as categories in the construction of a taxonomy. From our broad overview of the field we select significant examples to analyse in greater depth. This analysis serves to derive principles that may aid designers scaffold their work on existing innovation. We explore successful evaluation techniques from other fields and describe how they may be applied to iterative design processes for improvisational systems. We hope that by developing a more coherent design and evaluation process, we can support the next generation of improvisational music systems

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Tuning Into The Task: Sonic Environmental Cues And Mental Task Switching

Presented at the 22nd International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2016)This position paper suggests a novel approach to enhancing productivity for professionals whose core business is deep thinking, by manipulation of the sonic environment. Approaching the issue from the perspective of sound-design, it proposes the composition and algorithmic generation of background soundscapes that promote a psychological state of flow [1], and can become mentally associated with particular tasks through exposure, so as to facilitate task switching by switching soundscapes. These background soundscapes are intended to mask distracting clatter, oppressive quiet, and other suboptimal sonic environments frequently encountered in office workplaces. Consequently, I call them active-silences: soundscapes designed to be not heard, although they may be relatively loud. The most commonly used active-silence is white noise, though there are surprisingly diverse other approaches to crafting active-silence. This variety suggests the possibility of training associations that pair distinct active-silences with distinct mental tasks