Social Systems for Improvisation in Live Computer Music

The portfolio accompanying this commentary comprises seven works which are presented here in chronological order. The works can be summarised as follows: a work for laptop ensemble which explores the result of shifting the balances of power within the ensemble; a live score with electronic accompaniment for impro- vising acoustic ensemble which maps data relating to world politics to parameters in the score; an instrumental score exploring aspects of distributed decision making as human algorithmic processes; a system for large scale telematic laptop ensemble using machine listening as a mixing method; a sound installation which generates a soundscape out of speech samples and synthesis from political tweets; a mixing system for live coders which simulates voting behaviour of a decentralized, flocking population; a performance system for solo live coding, using algorithmically gener- ated code and EEG monitor to interact with the state of the system. Most of the above works employ visual representations to communicate the function of the underlying algorithms to audience and performers. Although di- verse in realisation parameters, the works all share a common theme of exploring the dynamics of improvisation and collaboration, particularly where technological communication systems and algorithms are involved in the sound production pro- cess. The underlying political, technological and social themes driving this explo- ration are discussed in the commentary which follows

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

Community Report: Livecodera

In March of 2022, LivecoderA, a new live coding community came into being, coalescing around the need to recognize a specific cohort of live coders who identify as women. The group is inherently feminist and intersectional, and its creation was motivated by many desires. Among them: solidarity and visibility, to be counted as sisters, and to reflect to each other the strength of our numbers. A manifesto and several events have since been produced, and the community is active online while also making more in-person connections whenever possible through the coordination of gigs, residencies and meetups. At the time of publishing, the community connects through Telegram and Discord, with channels consisting of 48 and 27 members respectively

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

A portfolio of compositions: commentary

I present here a Portfolio of Compositions totalling five works composed between October 2007 and September 2011 at the University of Birmingham Electroacoustic Music Studios. The works are varied in medium including acousmatic, mixed, instrumental and laptop compositions. In addition to the DVD containing recordings and video of the works and performance scores for four of the compositions, I include this commentary as an outline to the techniques used in the composition of the works as well as the aims and objectives of the works. The commentary also includes some discussion of the compositions in relation to the current context of electronic music writing, and some background to the influences that have shaped my compositional direction, with a particular focus on the use of technology in current performance practices. Included in the appendix are a number of supporting documents and a further composition discussed in relation to one of the compositions for submission

A Javascript Musical Machine Listening Library

More advanced interactive web browser based computer music applications are supported through a new javascript library for musical machine listening, MMLL. The library includes such facilities as beat tracking, pitch tracking, onset detection, major/minor chord detection, IFFT resynthesis and a tracking phase vocoder implementation. The code’s efficiency, technical issues, and two example applications built upon the library are discussed