Algorithmic Music

Solo Live Coding

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 05:15:59 +1000

My creative practice includes solo live coding performances. Live Coding involves writing software that makes music (or anything else If you prefer) as pat of the performance. It is a practice that is like improvised composition, where musical processes are described in computer code and executed and modified on the fly. It is customary for the code to be projected so that the audience can see the ‘score’ unfolding and to follow (to the extent they are familiar with the language) the evolving creative process. For more details on live coding see my 2006 article, Code Jamming, in the cultural studies journal MC.

The image above is from a concert at Kings College London, and video of my work performed their is linked to below.

Back Deck Headphone Concerts

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:46:18 +1000

The temperate climate of Brisbane lends itself to outdoor living, so it has been natural to host informal concerts, or Soirées, on the back deck. In particular, so as not to annoy the neighbours, these are headphone concerts which lend themselves to various types of electronic music performance. The media on this page show some examples of these events over the years.

AV Jam

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:46:26 +1000

AV Jam is part of the development of the jam2jam family of collaborative software applications that assist creative activities (music and video performance at this stage) in community arts and education contexts. AV Jam software uses multiple physical interfaces enabling users to be involved in interactive audio visual jams with their friends. The provision of simple and intuitive interaction mechanisms allow users to vary features of the music in real time. Software technologies handle the complexities of connectivity and generative content creation. Jamming systems provide a scaffold for personal and social creative activities and the project is refining the product, testing alternative interface designs, building up resources that support a variety of applications, and working with partners to test and evaluate the designs in real-world contexts.

The Morph Table

Thu, 5 Oct 2006 09:41:03 +1000

The morphing table is a new way of interacting with music. Like many other "table" interfaces, the morphing table is a social interface that allows you to move objects around on a table surface to morph between different generative musical riffs. The morphing table has a clear top and a video camera under the table tracks the position of the cubes. Because of its size and use of many physical objects the morphing table allows for collaborative music making by a small group of people. The objects control music at an abstract level with sophisticated computer music processes generating the music, so it is easy to use while still offering a challenge to master.
Cubes on the table represent musical riffs and their location on the table controls the morphing between riffs. Musical morphs blend aspects of the two riffs using algorithms designed by the research team. The morphing processes and software have been created by a research team including Rene Wooller, Andrew R. Brown, Eduardo Miranda, Joachim Diederich and Rodney Berry in a project funded by the Australian Research Council. Kate Thomas assisted in the design and creation of the cubes.
There is a video of the project on YouTube, and more photos here.

jam2jam software

Sun, 5 Mar 2006 09:48:52 +1000

jam2jam is an application that generates music that you can control while it plays Connect with your friends who also have jam2jam to jointly control the music over a network. Jam just like a band, but without the need for complex instrumental skills.
The jam2jam software was designed to promote meaningful engagement with music making for musicians of all ages. Clever algorithmic processes generate music that you control. You shape the music by adjusting parameters on the jam2jam interface. The idea is to experiment and listen to the sound and make great grooves either on your own or with others. The key to success is to take risks, be creative and listen to the sounds that your actions make.
Networked jamming with music involves a contemporary musicianship which embraces the computer as instrument, the network as ensemble and cyberspace as venue. Networked jamming systems, such as jam2jam, provide learning opportunities based on real-time improvisation using digital instruments connected via electronic networks. Networked jamming environments can afford interactions in an accessible way while operating as virtual and present collaborative learning spaces.
The benefits of networked jamming are that it makes creative activities accessible and engaging. It embodies musical knowledge in an aural environment allowing simultaneous reflective discussion or demonstration of musical understanding. A networked jamming environment provides opportunities to develop a contemporary musicianship taking into account creative, technical and interpersonal skills.
More information at http://jam2jam.com

aa-cell: live coding duo

Fri, 1 Jul 2005 03:12:43 +1000

With Andrew Sorensen, Andrew Brown perform in the live coding duo aa-cell. Music is created (coded) during the performance and the laptop screens are projected so the audience can see how the music builds and changes. This practice is almost ultimately adaptive because as improvising performers aa-cell adjust the music by changing the meta-description of it as the performance proceeds.
Live coding of music uses the computer as an instrument, which is played by the direct construction and manipulation of sonic and musical processes. Gestural control involves typing at the computer keyboard but, unlike traditional keyboard instruments, these key gestures are usually indirect in their effect on the sonic result because they result in programming language text which is then interpreted by the computer.
In live coding practices, the code is a medium of expression through which creative ideas are articulated. The code acts as a notational representation of computational processes. It not only leads to the sonic outcome but also is available for reflection, reuse and modification. The aspects of music described by the code are open to some variation, especially in relation to choices about music or sonic granularity. This granularity continuum ranges from a focus on sound synthesis at one end of the scale to the structural organisation of musical events or sections at the other end. Regardless of the level of content granularity being controlled, when jamming with code the time constraints of the live performance environment force the performer to develop succinct and parsimonious expressions and to create processes that sustain activity (often using repetition, iteration and evolution) in order to maintain a coherent and developing musical structure during the performance. As a result, live coding requires not only new performance skills but also new ways of describing the structures of and processes that create music.
I have an article on Live Coding published in the M/C Journal, Andrew Sorensen and I have an article on aa-cell and live coding submitted to ICMC 2007.
Audio and video examples of aa-cell performances and photos of aa-cell in action are available form MySpace and YouTube.

IDSS

Mon, 7 Feb 2005 02:56:01 +1000

The Interactive Dynamic Stochastic Synthesizer (IDSS) is an instrument I wrote to do real-time stochastic synthesis performances. It extends the original dynamic stochastic synthesis process devised by Iannis Xenakis and provides an effective interface for interaction with what was previously a compositional process. Dynamic stochastic synthesis manipulates data in the time domain and that frequency and spectra attributes are emergent.

The IDSS is a real time instrument for performance and therefore many aspects of the implementation were designed to facilitate effective interaction and control of the dynamic tendencies.
I used the IDSS for solo performances and duets with Greg Jenkins in Australia and New Zealand, mainly during 2004 and 2005. Below is an edited example of a duet for two IDSS’s with Greg Jenkins performed in 2005.

InterMelb Sonic City

Tue, 23 Apr 2002 12:06:36 +1000

InterMelb Sonic City is an interactive media art work that explores the sounds of the city of Melbourne. It is designed to provide a new window on the sounds of a familiar environment. It was premiered at the REV Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2002.
It is an installation that has an ongoing life of its own, constantly making music. The audience is invited to participate in the music making by navigating around the city using a game-pad controller. As you move the visual marker to different locations on the map, the intensity and types of sounds change. In this way you control the form and structure of the piece. This work is a semi-autonomous musical instrument that you can both observe and play.

InterMelb Sonic City highlights the fact that what we hear and see are often quite different, and reverses the normal domination of sight over sound. For example, when walking in a city we see many people but they are generally silent, and what we hear most are machines or ‘piped’ music.
InterMelb Sonic City draws attention to the temporal nature of music by the distortion of sonic time and place. Sounds do not necessarily appear in the order they were recorded and are often cut into small fragments. When these fragments are played back in the normal order they are repositioned in the stereo spectrum creating a dislocation of space and directionality.
The sounds of the city are often not considered very musical, rather, as being noisy and mechanical. In this piece, musical parameters of pitch and rhythm are applied to the sound fragments. Pulse is generated by the regular beat of fragmentation and sounds are shifted in pitch so that they conform to the pitches of a pentatonic scale, however, this is often difficult to discern given the unpitched nature of common city sounds. We invite you to listen carefully to the work in order to hear these musical aspects, as well as to enjoy the broader textural experience.
In the work audio fragments from filed recordings in Melbourne are shredded and juxtaposed using real time granular processes that are fragmentary but always maintain a sense of acoustic space; lane ways use unique source material and treatments and so sound different from main roads, for example. The overall structure of the piece is controlled by navigating through a map of the city where each section of the map has its own characteristics, some more complex, some more frantic, some more isolated, and so on. The time of day also influences the sound of the installation. The pace of musical change is determined by the user’s speed of navigation through the map, and they can explore the city as they please, creating an emergent musical structure in the process. Stochastic elements in the compositional algorithms ensure that each exploration of the installation is unique, even if similar, just like a real city visit.

Synthesizer Compositions

Thu, 7 Mar 1991 22:54:00 +1000

Having a background as a pianist, it was natural that my interests in technology and keyboard performance would amalgamate in performance and composition for keyboard synthesizer. A number of these publications were published and are included on the official senior school curriculum in Victoria for solo synthesizer performance. These pieces include Hologram, a work for solo synthesizer and sequenced backing co-written with Kevin Purcell, and New Space Suite, a work in five parts for solo synthesizer and piano accompaniment. The materials for these are available online from Exploding Art Music Productions.