Abstract

Keywords: Collaboration, composition, creativity, metacreation, generative music.

Computational assistants are now regularly used in creative industries, and their use in music dates back practically to the 1950s, and theoretically to the 19th century. The author describes specific instances of interactive and algorithmic music systems from the last 50 years as examples of artistic assistants, suggesting that such systems exhibit only a limited role in the creative process. True collaboration, as evidenced in traditional human practices, requires greater autonomy, independence, and potential influence; he describes his collaboration with his most recent metacreative system, Moments.

• Arne Eigenfeldt is a composer of live electroacoustic music, and a researcher into  intelligent generative music systems. His music has been performed around the world, and his collaborations range from Persian Tar masters to contemporary dance companies to musical robots. He has presented his research at conferences and festivals such as the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Sound and Music Computing (SMC), the International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Creativity and Cognition, EvoMusArt, Generative Art, and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). He is a professor of music and technology at Simon Fraser University, and is the co-director of the Metacreation Lab.

Full text p. 214 – 219