Departing from the artistic research project Goodbye Intuition(GI) hosted by the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, thisarticle discusses the aesthetics of improvising with machines.Playing with a system such as the one described in this article,with limited intelligence and no real cognitive skills, willobviously reveal the weaknesses of the system, but it will alsoconvey part of the preconditions and aesthetic frameworks thatthe human improviser brings to the table. If we want theautonomous system to have the same kind of freedom wecommonly value in human players’ improvisational practice,are we prepared to accept that it may develop in a directionthat departs from our original aesthetical ambitions? Theanalyses is based on some of the documented interplay betweenthe musicians in a group in workshops and laboratories. Thequestion of what constitutes an ethical relationship in this kindof improvisation is briefly discussed. The aspect of embodimentemerges as a central obstacle in the development of musicalimprovisation with machines.
This article presents several scenarios in which a live coding environment called Paragraph was utilised to telematically play networked and geographically distributed hyperorgans. Situated within the framework of the Global Hyperorgan project, the TCP/Indeterminate Place Quartet have explored the affordances of the organ network through the concept of Tele-Copresence. By outsourcing certain dimensions of the parameter space of the Paragraph language to other members of the quartet, a shared instrumentality is enabled, where the organs are collaboratively controlled by means of this system. Rooted in a personal composer-performer practice and studied from the perspective of the live coder, the Paragraph system, adapted to the TCP/Indeterminate Place environment, can be understood as a modular system of human and non-human agents, into which the other musicians are patched. The distributed parameter space utilised, thus resembles a shared cantus firmus, a foundational, but dynamically changing, ecology for the live coder to play within.
This text deals with the difficult task of notating timbre by addressing how it can be classified, synthesised, recognised and related to visual correspondences, and then looking at the relevance of these topics for notational purposes. Timbre is understood as dependent on both spectral and time-dependent features that can be notated in ways that make sense in relation to both perception and acoustics. This is achieved by taking the starting point in Lasse Thoresen’s spectromorphological analysis. Symbols originally developed for perception-based analysis are adapted for use over a hybrid spectrum-staff system to indicate the spectral qualities of timbre. To test the system, it was used to transcribe excerpts of three classic electroacoustic music works. In addition to the benefit of being able to compare the three excerpts transcribed with the same system, there is the advantage that the visual representation is based on spectral measurable qualities in the music. The notation system’s intuitiveness was also explored in listening tests, showing that it was possible to understand spectral notation symbols placed over a staff system, particularly for examples with two sound objects instead of one.