‘Sound is the interface’: from interactive to ecosystemic signal processing

Abstract

This paper takes a systemic perspective on interactive signal processing and introduces the author's Audible Eco-Systemic Interface (AESI) project. It starts with a discussion of the paradigm of ‘interaction’ in existing computer music and live electronics approaches, and develops following bio-cybernetic principles such as ‘system/ambience coupling’, ‘noise’, and ‘self-organisation’. Central to the paper is an understanding of ‘interaction’ as a network of interdependencies among system components, and as a means for dynamical behaviour to emerge upon the contact of an autonomous system (e.g. a DSP unit) with the external environment (room or else hosting the performance). The author describes the design philosophy in his current work with the AESI (whose DSP component was implemented as a signal patch in KYMA5.2), touching on compositional implications (not only live electronics situations, but also sound installations).

Promoting Creative Design in Interactive Evolutionary Computation

“…Users who answered "no" to the question of whether they were encountering EvoEco for the first time were excluded. Additionally, approximately 5% of responses were excluded out of hand 7 . As expected, the sample was not representative of the population as a whole.…”

“…"Ecosystemic" models have become popular in generative art over recent years due to their ability to generate complex structures and interactions through carefully coupled feedback components [7], [10], [26], [28]. Our primary concern is their ability to generate novel and multi-scale patterns autonomously.…”

Creative Agency: A Clearer Goal for Artificial Life in the Arts

“…This overlaps smoothly with our third suggested approach, which is to work out how to exploit the creative potential already under investigation in in silico research in Alife, but in artistic domains. A pioneering example of such research is the Italian composer Agostino di Scipio's musical performances, which work by building sonic ecosystems that transform the latent sound of the performance space into musical works using a series of complex variations on the process of audio feedback [24]. Di Scipio's insight is to begin with the medium that he is interested in, and construct complex networks of processes within that domain (sound itself).…”

Filterscape: Energy Recycling in a Creative Ecosystem

“…In recent years the ecosystem has appeared as the metaphorical cornerstone in the work of a number of electro-acoustic composers [1], performers [2] and performance theorists [3]. The unifying theme across these diverse works is that a musical performance is contingent upon a range of interacting components (social, ethnographic, musical, technological etc.)…”