www.x-tet.com » Generative music

Baby Reindeer

norbert — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:31:55 +0000

“Baby Reindeer” is a generative music app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The “baby reindeer” is actually a toy—the Fisher-Price “Ocean Wonders Soothe and Glow Seahorse.” It was a gift to my son, who cuddled with it at night and enjoyed the mix of classical melodies and ocean sounds. When my daughter saw it for the first time she squealed with delight, saying, “Oh look! It’s a baby reindeer!” It was soft. It lit up when you squeezed its belly. Everyone was fond of the “baby reindeer.” I was fascinated with the way that, as its batteries ran down, the melodies and ocean sounds would detune and garble. Short, micro-recordings of these sounds comprise many of the parts heard in this music.

In 1996 Brian Eno invented the term generative music to describe a sound experience that is unique upon every listening. Simple compositional rules unfold to make each ‘performance’ distinct within a range of possibilities. This app uses the processing capabilities of your device to play continuous music that drifts within a mood and is unlikely to be repeated.

MP3 rough sketch of “Baby Reindeer” (initial rough sketch from April ’11)

Sound Art at Waveforms

norbert — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:00:55 +0000

The gradual accumulation of additional layers or matter (Norbert Herber & Rowland Ricketts, 2011) can be seen & heard as part of Waveforms, “an exhibition of interdisciplinary art works showcasing sound as the principle component. This exhibition explores, through an examination of creative and artistic practices, the interface of sound and new media technologies. The works in the exhibit include a number of trans-disciplinary interactions and collaborations that include sound in the context of visual and spatial artistic practices, including sound sculpture, installations, and performance works.”

Other artists include Carrie Bodle, Jacob C. Hammes, Tesia Kosmalski, Lou Mallozzi, Shannon McMullen/Fabian Winkler, Stephanie Rowden, and Jesse Seay.

Waveforms will open to the public with a reception Friday, October 21, 6:00 – 8:00pm and be on view through Friday, November 18, 2011. An “illustrated conversation” (symposium) will be held Friday, October 21 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm followed by a performance by Chicago sound artist Lou Mallozzi from 4:00 – 6:00pm. For full details, see the Grunwald Gallery of Art.

‘Pac-Man Pop Music’ Chapter Available as PDF

norbert — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:21:30 +0000

My chapter ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’ appeared in the book From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, edited by Karen Collins in 2007.

This chapter is now available by permission of the Publishers of ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’, in From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, ed. K Collins, (Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 103-123.Copyright © 2007.

Download the PDF

Citation:
Herber, N 2007, ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’, in From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, ed. K Collins, Ashgate, Hampshire; Burlington, VT.

Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio

norbert — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:54:47 +0000

Call for Papers: The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio

Deadline for Proposals: 1 April 2011

The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio is under contract at Oxford University Press.

Through a collection of chapters on interactivity in music and sound, the book is meant to offer a new set of analytical tools for the growing field of interactive audio. A series of related questions drive the book: What makes interactive audio different from non-interactive audio? Where does interacting with audio fit into our understanding of sound and music in media? Where is interactive audio heading in the future? And how do we begin to approach interactive audio from a theoretical perspective?

It is our belief that interacting with sound is fundamentally different from just listening to sound. The physical agency and control of interactivity adds a level of engagement and involvement with sound that alters the way we experience sound in games, interfaces, products, toys, environments (virtual and real) and art. There are considerable consequences of interactivity when it comes not only to audience, but also to practice, distribution, tools, and copyright law.

We encourage proposals that raise questions and explore new theories about how scholars and practitioners can approach interactive sound. A handbook chapter should make new and original arguments in a new piece composed specifically for the handbook. It may be a survey what you believe to be the essential issues and questions in the field and offer a contemporary critical analysis of these.

Potential topic areas include (but are not limited to):

Composition theory and practice (including improvisation, music-based games, virtual worlds, mobile music)
Sound design theory and practice (including sounds, interface, branding, web, sound art, interactive spaces, virtual worlds, toys, pinball)
Voice interaction
Mixing, implementation of interactive audio
Playback and distribution systems
Interactive audio tools (composition, synthesis, note tracking, etc.)
Distribution, copyright and legal issues

Submission details: Chapter proposals of about 500 words and short bio (name, affiliation) in English to be submitted by April 1, 2011 to the editors at one of the email addresses below. Please address any questions or queries to the editors at one of the email addresses below.

Decisions will be made by June 1, 2011. Upon acceptance, full guidelines will be furnished. Completed chapters of about 6000 words are to be submitted by June 1, 2012.

Editors: Karen Collins (collinsk@uwaterloo.ca), Bill Kapralos (bill.kapralos@uoit.ca) and Holly Tessler (h.tessler@neu.edu)

Sound Garden

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:48:53 +0000

Asynchronous improvisation by me, you + others. Following Perturb, Sound Garden is the second work in a series of musical installations that explore the relationship of people, location, and audio relative to technology. Sound Garden was composed for Arts Week 2007 at Indiana University, Bloomington. The project originally ran from 21 February to 7 March, 2007. Most recently, Sound Garden was part of the 2009 SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Arts at the University of Minnesota, February 17–22, 2009.

Launch the Sound Garden project site

Sound Garden online and in the press:
“Cultivating the Sound Garden” from the IU News Room
Attention from networked_performance
Post in the Audio Cookbook

Perturb

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:24:53 +0000

An asynchronous improvisation by me, you + others at the SoFA gallery in Bloomington, IN. Sound material is to be provided by those who vist the piece. Join in the performance with your own short recordings, samples, soundscapes, and found sonic objects.

Launch Perturb project site

A(rt) Life 2.0

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:23:54 +0000

A(rt)Life 2.0 is an installation of music, sound, and projected animation. It uses a flocking behavior to reveal the possibilities of sound in Artificial Life systems. A(rt)Life 2.0 examines the relationship of music and emergence by exploring how self-organizing behavior can extend music endlessly in time.

Launch A(rt)Life 2.0 project site

AUTOMATIC BODY

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:21:54 +0000

Automatic Body, done in collaboration with Yacov Sharir, is an installation driven by swarm dynamics where individual behaviors are translated into sound and dance. The media has not been optimized for the web, so please excuse the sluggish playback.

Launch AUTOMATIC BODY

Particle Swarm Optimization [2]

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:20:54 +0000

Complexity via simplicity: This piece uses the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to make generative music. PSO[2] was premiered at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China in conjunction with “Consciousness Reframed 2004: Qi & Complexity.”

Launch PSO[2]

Word is Virus

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:17:10 +0000

This project is based on the cut-up techniques used by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. Burroughs gave a lecture where he discussed his and Gysin’s experiments with cut ups at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in April of 1976. This piece takes that lecture and cuts it into an ever-changing variety of permutations. The lecture is heard in accompaniment with a soundscape and is intended for continuous listening.

Launch “Word is Virus”