a Sound & Music Production 3rd year degree 'Collaborative Practice' module 2009
....This site was started 12/07/2009, and much has been added - but some Links & Files may still not be available....YET - Thanks for your patience (16/08/2009)
This page explains a bit about the Human/Computer Collaboration module, and why I have decided to put it onto the web.
So, the
HUMAN/COMPUTER COLLABORATION module
is a project I produced for my 3rd year Sound & Music Production degree at Plymouth University. The university module is entitled
COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE, and can involve any sound/music based collaborative endeavor; generally working with other
musicians & artists. Examples might be: recording an album for a local band, or working with a film-maker to produce a film-score, etc.
For my project, I decided to do something a little different, and explore the notion of collaboration with technology, and in
particular, musical collaboration with a computer. This meant researching the creative process, and applying collaborative models to
human/computer relationships.
To work collaboratively in the field of music, I researched methods of algorithmic composition; such as use of
cellular automata (CA), Markov chains, and parallel distributed processing
(PDP, a.k.a. neural networks) within musical composition (and also in
sound synthesis). As the project
involved collaboration, it was important that I interact with the computer to make the music, and not just let
the computer take over the creative process entirely, as is often the case in traditional algorithmic composition.
Various ideas to allow for a creative interface between a human composer, and computer software program were explored,
exploring many tried & tested methods from my research sources, as well as some of my own invention.
Some of the sources of inspiration for this project are listed below, and were responsible for a huge percentage of
the research undertaken on this module.
Research into the practical aspects of this module, such as the algorithmic compositional techniques, and methods of sound synthesis were sourced largely from the following sources:
These are some excellent research sources for computer music, including algorithmic composition, a wide variety of sound synthesis methods, and some great insight into audio, music & technology.
Throughout the module, I developed software patches that enabled an interactive, creative process to exist between composer
and computer; though, due to the computer's lack of musical awareness and creative intelligence, it felt that the word
collaboration was not fully appropriate, settling instead for the term inspirational-feedback. Within my
research, however, there was a notion of distance-collaboration,
an idea that the development of both creative productions, and more so, technology, are the result of an ever accumulating
process, due to the building of ideas upon ideas between many practitioners (see Barthes, The Death of the Author).
The work of this module could then be explained as a product of, and an addition to, this process of distance collaboration.
So, the work I have done on this project has been made available for students and those who share an interest in the content;
that of algorithmic composition, synthesis techniques, and developing the portrayal of the computer in the realm of
human/computer collaboration. Hopefully this work will inspire others to continue these ideas, and also attract the skills
of more experienced computer programmers and mathematicians who can offer me help in improving & stream-lining the programs
to further the capabilities of the patches.
The work of this module was undertaken through the academic year 2008/2009 - website created July 2009 (g.may)
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