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Swarm Theory Applied to Music

Posted by timothy on from the fire-ants dept.

JoeCotellese writes "There is an article in Discover magazine about computer scientist/musician Tim Blackwell and his Swarm Music software. This software creates improvisational music based on models of swarming and flocking. The observation was made that interaction among musicians is interdependent and yet independent and this dynamic parallels flock dynamics. Computer generated music has been around for a while but according to his web site, this project was the first application of swarm theory to music. Sample MP3s are available on his website."

4 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MP3? by jpsst34 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You have to look for the (mp3).wav file. (I don't get it, either.)

    --
    How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
  2. Similar Project by mattlary · · Score: 5, Informative

    Al Biles from RIT has been working with genetic algorithms to do jazz solos.
    Here's a link to information on his genetic algorithm, GenJam.

    -Matt

  3. Re:Douglas Adams would be proud! by Drakon · · Score: 4, Informative

    He discusses this in some mathematical detail at times.

    he specifically mentions the conversion of a flock of birds to sounds ... :-)

    On a side note... that link should goto: http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=252
    here?

    SUPPORT THE INTERNET BOOK LIST! SUBMIT A BOOK! :-)

    --
    Buttsex.
  4. UCSD's modern music department by Goldsmith · · Score: 3, Informative

    UCSD's music department offers an undergraduate computer music class. I took the class and we did some swarm based music. In fact, as a final project in the class, I wrote a program to produce music based on fusion plasma simulations in a tokamak (my job at the time), which contains similar algorythms.

    These are not especially new ideas.