Designing a Highly Expressive Algorithmic Music Composition System for Non-Programmers

Algorithmic composition systems allow for the partial or total automation of music composition by formal, computational means. Typical algorithmic composition systems generate nondeterministic music, meaning that multiple musical outcomes can result from the same algorithm - consequently the output is generally different each time the algorithm runs

Choosers: The design and evaluation of a visual algorithmic music composition language for non-programmers

Algorithmic music composition involves specifying music in such a way that it is non-deterministic on playback, leading to music which has the potential to be different each time it is played. Current systems for algorithmic music composition typically require the user to have considerable programming skill and may require formal knowledge of music. However, much of the potential user population are music producers and musicians (some professional, but many amateur) with little or no programming experience and few formal musical skills. To investigate how this gap between tools and potential users might be better bridged we designed Choosers, a prototype algorithmic programming system centred around a new abstraction (of the same name) designed to allow non-programmers access to algorithmic music composition methods. Choosers provides a graphical notation that allows structural elements of key importance in algorithmic composition (such as sequencing, choice, multi-choice, weighting, looping and nesting) to be foregrounded in the notation in a way that is accessible to non-programmers. In order to test design assumptions a Wizard of Oz study was conducted in which seven pairs of undergraduate Music Technology students used Choosers to carry out a range of rudimentary algorithmic composition tasks. Feedback was gathered using the Programming Walkthrough method. All users were familiar with Digital Audio Workstations, and as a result they came with some relevant understanding, but also with some expectations that were not appropriate for algorithmic music work. Users were able to successfully make use of the mechanisms for choice, multi-choice, looping, and weighting after a brief training period. The ‘stop’ behaviour was not so easily understood and required additional input before users fully grasped it. Some users wanted an easier way to override algorithmic choices. These findings have been used to further refine the design of Choosers

Choosers: designing a highly expressive algorithmic music composition system for non-programmers

We present an algorithmic composition system designed to be accessible to those with minimal programming skills and little musical training, while at the same time allowing the manipulation of detailed musical structures more rapidly and more fluidly than would normally be possible for such a user group. These requirements led us to devise non- standard programming abstractions as the basis for a novel graphical music programming language in which a single basic element permits indeterminism, parallelism, choice, multi-choice, recursion, weighting and looping. The system has general musical expressivity, but for simplicity here we focus on manipulating samples. The musical abstractions behind the system have been implemented as a set of SuperCollider classes to enable end-user testing of the graphical programming language via a Wizard of Oz prototyping methodology. The system is currently being tested with undergraduate Music Technology students who are typically neither programmers, nor traditional musicians

When Copyright Can Kill: How 3D Printers Are Breaking the Barriers Between “Intellectual” Property and the Physical World

This article examines copyright’s applicability to 3D printing technology, by analyzing the facts surrounding the (formerly) proposed development of a fully 3D printable firearm. Critical to this analysis however, is an understanding of how copyright has traditionally protected intellectual property, and why 3D printers do not fit into this conventional framework. As 3D printing is advancing at an extraordinarily rapid rate, any discussion of this topic would be incomplete without reference to the “moving target” that is 3D printing technology. In the short time between when this article was initially submitted for evaluation to the PIPSELF Law Forum in December 2012, and when it will be published in May 2013, many new uses for 3D printing have already been demonstrated, and indeed some of the issues discussed in this article have already become outdated, all within a six month timespan. This article discusses at length, the efforts of the Defense Distributed project to develop a 3D printable firearm. When the article was originally submitted in 2012, Defense Distributed had already managed to prove the feasibility of using 3D printed firearms components, but the gun utilizing the printed component promptly broke apart after only successfully firing 6 shots. However, in February 2013, Defense Distributed released a new video, demonstrating a redesigned 3D printed component that was successfully used to fire over 600 rounds without a structural failure. Other recent developments in 3D printing include a company whose goal is to produce 3D printable cultured leather and edible meat products. Finally, in January 2013, the organization Public Knowledge released a whitepaper entitled “What\u27s the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing?” written by Michael Weinberg. As both the whitepaper and this article discuss the same basic principles, but do so by analyzing slightly different areas of the law, I view the whitepaper as a companion piece to this article. UPDATE (5/5/13): Defense Distributed has completed (and successfully test fired) the world’s first entirely 3D printed pistol. UPDATE (5/10/13): In the timespan of a single week after the release of the first 3D printed pistol, the U.S. State Department has initiated procedures to force Defense Distributed to remove all its 3D printable gun components from the Internet, with the State Department claiming it needs to review the files for compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Further there are other measures being proposed by Congressman Steve Israel to outright ban 3D printed guns. However, considering that the 3D printable pistol was already downloaded over 100,000 times before the recent ITAR action, and the fact that the inherent design of the Internet means that many websites are foreign based, and therefore entirely outside the jurisdiction of the U.S., it appears to be an increasingly futile effort to force “removal” of these files from the Web. These files are still widely available on the Internet, and likely will continue to remain so, as websites like The Pirate Bay will continue to host & distribute 3D firearm files, regardless of any laws passed or litigation filed attempting to compel their removal

East Coast Salt Marsh Response To Sea Level Rise: Microbial Community Function And Structure

Coastal salt marshes are under stress from anthropogenic climate change-induced sea level rise (SLR). Sediment microbial decomposition is a major driver of marsh subsidence and any impact of SLR on this biotic process would have a direct effect on marsh surface elevation relative to sea level. Furthermore, sensitivity to SLR of microbial community composition may play a role in the functional response. I collected sediment from six coastal marshes on the United States Atlantic East coast, exposed it to simulated sea level rise and measured total respired carbon over a three week period. My results indicated that SLR caused a decrease in microbial decomposition but that this functional response varied among sites and between elevations within sites (Chapter 1 of this thesis). Although differences in decomposition rates among sites were related to organic matter content, differential functional responses to sea-level rise among sites and elevations could not be explained by organic matter, nor a suite of environmental variables that have the potential to effect microbial activity (i.e., porewater pH, salinity and redox potential). In order to determine if changes in community composition might explain the functional response that I observed, I conducted a terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of 16S rDNA extracted from sediment from the Massachusetts and New Hampshire sites (Chapter 2 of this thesis). I found that microbial community composition varied between the two sites. Furthermore, increased inundation caused a decrease in microbial community compositional shift that corresponded to a decline in decomposition rate. My results suggest that microbial functional response to SLR may be linked to changes in community composition

Employment, Family Union, and Childbearing Decisions in Great Britain

The paper investigates the relationship between work and family life in Britain. Using appropriate statistical techniques we estimate a five-equation model, which includes birth events, union formation, union dissolution, employment and non-employment events. The model allows for unobserved heterogeneity that is correlated across all five equations. We use information from the British Household Panel Survey, including the retrospective histories concerning work, union, and child bearing, to estimate this model. We obtain well-defined parameter estimates, including significant and correlated unobserved heterogeneity. We find that transitions in and out of employment for men are relatively independent of other transitions. In contrast, there are strong links between female employment, having children and union formation. By undertaking a detailed micro simulations analysis, we show that different levels of female labour force participation do not necessarily lead to large changes in fertility levels. Changes in union formation and fertility levels, on the other hand, do have a significant impact on employment rates.demographic transitions, marriage, divorce, birth, employment

Modelling poverty by not modelling poverty: An application of a simultaneous hazards approach to the UK

We pursue an economic approach to analysing poverty. This requires a focus on the variables that individuals can influence, such as forming or dissolving a union or having children. We argue that this indirect approach to modelling poverty is the right way to bring economic tools to bear on the issue. In our implementation of this approach, we focus on endogenous demographic and employment transitions as the driving forces behind changes in poverty. We construct a dataset covering event histories over a long window and estimate five simultaneous hazards with unrestricted correlated heterogeneity. The model fits the demographic and poverty data reasonably well. We investigate the important parameters and processes for differences in individuals' poverty likelihood. Employment, and particularly employment of disadvantaged women with children, is important.poverty dynamics, poverty transitions, simultaneous hazards