Are the robots coming? Designing with autonomy & control for musical creativity & performance

This paper1 expands upon our previous work, and starts to unpack notions of autonomy and control in musical composition and performance-based systems. The term autonomous has become synonymous with technologies such as “autonomous vehicles” and “drones”, while notions of control have mainly been raised in respect to the “control” of industrial systems and in respect to protocols. This position piece disrupts these notions and provides a platform, introducing a more radical proposition in respect to the representation of autonomy and control of features that can be used to design systems that support musical composition and performance. This paper supports a growing interest within the Design, HCI and Artificial Intelligence communities, leading us to think about Human Like Computing systems and the development of a Computational Creativity Continuum

Doing it for themselves: the practices of amateur musicians and DIY music networks in a digital age

A fast expanding network of DIY music communities in the UK see digital technologies transforming ways in which part-time amateur musicians are able to collabo- rate creatively and form alliances, producing unique per- formance techniques, experimenting with genre conven- tions and reaching out to an international audience. With a DIY approach, creative autonomy and control is re- tained and celebrated in shared non-commercial spaces run by the artists themselves. A rich ethnographic study seeks to explore these shared ideologies and practices

Surfing with sound: an ethnography of the art of no-input mixing

The idea of No-Input Mixing may appear at first difficult to understand, after all there is no input, yet artists, performers and sound designers have used a variety of approaches using such feedback systems to create music. This paper uses ethnographic approaches to start to understand the methods that people employ when using no-input systems, and in so doing tries to make the invisible, visible. In unpacking some of these techniques we are able to render understandings, of what at first appears to be a random and autonomous set of sounds, as a set of audio features that are controlled, created and are able to be manipulated by a given performer. This is particularly interesting for researchers that involved in the design of new feedback-based instruments, Human Computer Interaction and aleatoric-compositional software

Affect theory and autoethnography in ordinary information systems

This paper uses philosophical theories of affect as a lens for exploring autoethnographic renderings of everyday experience with information technology. Affect theories, in the paper, denote a broad trend in post-humanistic philosophy that explores sensation and feeling as emergent and relational pre- cognitive forces that impinge on a body and its capacity to act. A necessarily truncated account of af- fect theory, and three autoethnographic vignettes are presented to complement the philosophical ex- position and to provide reflections on possible empirical tactics for affective research in IS. Inspired by the challenges to IS reflected in Yoo’s notion of Experiential Computing, the paper contributes with examples of how everyday attentiveness to the senses can unveil new forms of embodiment related to ‘living with technology’. It suggests that feelings (both sensory visceral as well as more generalized moods) emerge out of intimate embodied entanglement with ubiquitous computing technologies infra- structures

Sonifying the Scene: re-framing and manipulating meaning through audio augmentation

Digital locative music technologies are transforming the ways in which we are able to manipulate and re-frame the meaning of architecture, landscape and art. In this note we explore and outline some of the key features that are associated with this. Defining the future possibilities and challenges that we have identified through our re-search in the area. Our work is supported by examples and critically assesses the relationship between physical and aural presence, examining the manipulation and re-framing of meaning through audio augmentation. “Is Space Audible?” [7]

Affect theory and autoethnography in ordinary information systems

This paper uses philosophical theories of affect as a lens for exploring autoethnographic renderings of everyday experience with information technology. Affect theories, in the paper, denote a broad trend in post-humanistic philosophy that explores sensation and feeling as emergent and relational pre- cognitive forces that impinge on a body and its capacity to act. A necessarily truncated account of af- fect theory, and three autoethnographic vignettes are presented to complement the philosophical ex- position and to provide reflections on possible empirical tactics for affective research in IS. Inspired by the challenges to IS reflected in Yoo’s notion of Experiential Computing, the paper contributes with examples of how everyday attentiveness to the senses can unveil new forms of embodiment related to ‘living with technology’. It suggests that feelings (both sensory visceral as well as more generalized moods) emerge out of intimate embodied entanglement with ubiquitous computing technologies infra- structures

Sonifying the Scene: re-framing and manipulating meaning through audio augmentation

Digital locative music technologies are transforming the ways in which we are able to manipulate and re-frame the meaning of architecture, landscape and art. In this note we explore and outline some of the key features that are associated with this. Defining the future possibilities and challenges that we have identified through our re-search in the area. Our work is supported by examples and critically assesses the relationship between physical and aural presence, examining the manipulation and re-framing of meaning through audio augmentation. “Is Space Audible?” [7]

The gift of the algorithm: beyond autonomy and control

This piece brings together, participation, algorithmic composition and augmentation (as a mechanism by which people can work together to augment and support a composer’s workflow). The performance is about understanding the ways in which composition and performance can be understood, socially, aesthetically and scientifically. This performance becomes a piece of research and design in its own right, a more experimental manifestation of HCI, but it also demonstrates and disrupts conventional production and performance by making the multiple layers of practice and provenance obvious. *See Program notes for a fuller description of the piece for public consumption. We also aim to discuss this further and demo at the Performance workshop that we have submitted. This is part the on going research of the FAST project and aims to engage the wider interdisciplinary Audio Mostly community. • Program notes This piece expands upon Chamberlain’s work into compositional practices that explore autonomy and control, and builds upon the Numbers into Notes system as developed by De Roure. The piece (which is an evolving work) uses the symbolism of the gift to frame parts of the interactions that have occurred in the development of the piece. Individuals are given the chance to create an algorithm. This is made into a physical entity (containing a sequence), which is then gifted to the composer; these together are combined and used to compose a piece. The piece is then performed and given back to the audience (live), of which some members have created the original algorithms. The performance creates a gift, a souvenir, a memento of the experience which some of the audience members can take away. The performance also acts as a way in which we can also understand the interplay between algorithms, art, performance, provenance and participation

Making it “pay a bit better”: design challenges for micro rural enterprise

This paper reports on a field study of small market in Wales undertaken as part of broader research project aimed at developing IT solutions to support rural enterprise. The project is predicated on the assumption that the primary challenge facing rural enterprise is that of scale and that IT solutions could and should add value by enabling growth. The study suggests that many rural enterprises are micro in character, that they are not driven by the need to grow, and that value is and can be added in different ways that reflect the social values oriented to and employed by micro businesses and their consumers. The paper elaborates vernacular understandings of supply chains and their coordination, along with business and consumer motivations to consider alternative possibilities for design that place emphasis on making micro rural enterprise ‘pay a bit better’ rather than scaling it up

Mapping media and meaning: autoethnography as an approach to designing personal heritage soundscapes

The paper presents reflections on understanding the issues of designing of locative sonic memory-scapes. As physical space and digital media become ever more intertwined, together forming and augmenting meaning and experience, we need methods to further explore possible ways in which physical places and intangible personal content can be used to develop meaningful experiences. The paper explores the use of autoethnography as a method for soundscape design in the fields of personal heritage and locative media. Specifically, we explore possible connections between digital media, space and ‘meaning making’, suggesting how autoethnographies might help discover design opportunities for merging digital media and places. These are methods that are more personally relevant than those typically associated with a more system-based design approaches that we often find are less sensitive to the way that emotion, relationships, memory and meaning come together. As a way to expand upon these relationships we also reflect on relations between personal and community-based responses