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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."

7 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Quantification of Determinism in Music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be interesting to analyze this new music using iterated function systems as described in the seminal work by Meloon and Sprott. The method characterises the organization of the music which may, or may not, occur in this new music generated by 'flock theory'.

  2. Douglas Adams would be proud! by hdurdle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fantastic! The main character in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", Richard MacDuff, is a programmer whose current project is converting numerical data into sounds. He discusses this in some mathematical detail at times. And MacDuff has written an article on the relationship between music, mathematics, and beauty, and which gets quoted extensively.

    1. 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.
  3. 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?
  4. 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

    1. Re:Similar Project by mivok · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Wow.. that sounds amazing, especially considering its computer generated. So now I have to tell everyone that a computer can not only beat me at board games, but it can improvise better than I can as well :(

      Admittedly, jazz is a lot more random than other styles, and the chords for some (all?) of the songs were predetermined, but still, its the first computer generated music I've heard that didnt sound 'weird', unlike the ones from the toplevel article here, parts of which sound like they would make really good intros/backings to a tune, but needs something to make the music more melodic (I guess that where the GA comes in).

      I'd be interested to know how many generations it takes for most of the tunes, and what fitness function he used (or if it was just.. listen to several and pick the best few).. guess its reading time :)

  5. 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.