Improvising Machines: Spectral Dance and Token Objects

Abstract

The author examines the evolution of a system he developed for the creation of two compositions, Spectral Dance and Token Objects, against a backdrop of other composers who have built their own electronic systems. This provides a window on the gradual transformation that has taken place in the way music has been created over the last three decades.

Oculog

“…This gives the melodic contour a characteristic of saccadic eye movement, proceeding in a manner that may appear to be random and non-sequential, yet nevertheless coherent. This variation algorithm extends techniques for interaction between a live performer and an automated procedure developed by the second author between 1986 and 1993 [16]. In the context of Saccadic Variations, this algorithm embraces an aspect of noise that one might expect from a biological performance interface.…”

Understanding Interactive Systems

“…Similarly, with respect to his own interactive work Chadabe (1997: 287) describes sharing the control of the music with an interactive system. Schiemer (1999: 109–10) refers to an illusion of control, describing his interactive instruments as improvising machines, and compares working with an interactive system to sculpting with soft metal or clay. Sensorband performers working with the Soundnet (Bongers 1998) also set up systems that exist at the edge of control, due no less in part to the extreme physical nature of their interfaces.…”