Miriam Richter From Radios to Falmouth University Academy of Music and Theatre Arts Treliever Road, Penryn Biocomputers: An Interview Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK [email protected] with Eduardo Reck Miranda

Eduardo Reck Miranda (see Figure 1) is a classi- the exception of Konserto de Muzika´ Eletroplastika´ , cally trained and for which no recording exists. (AI) scientist with an early involvement in electro- acoustic and avant-garde pop music. He studied computer science and music in his native Coming to Composition and Improvisation and subsequently took post-graduate degrees at the and the University of Miriam Richter: Please tell me about your history in the . He held academic positions in composing. Where did it all begin? at universities in Glasgow, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Eduardo Reck Miranda: Music was prominent and Bordeaux, and worked for several years at the in my upbringing. My grandfather played the Computer Science Laboratory in Paris as a sousaphone, and his brother ran a luthier’s workshop research scientist in the fields of AI, speech, and only a few blocks from home. I started taking piano evolution of language. Currently he is Professor of lessons when I was seven years old, but I must at Plymouth University in the confess that I did not enjoy practicing. I often found UK, where he founded the Interdisciplinary Centre it more exciting to improvise and create my own for Computer Music Research (ICCMR) and is the tunes. artistic director of the Peninsula Arts Contemporary I had not considered music as a career option Music Festival. when I finished high school. I ended up going to Miranda is a composer working at the crossroads university to study computing, and soon after I of music and science. His music includes pieces for graduated I got a job as a systems analyst. However, symphonic orchestras, chamber groups, and solo I was not entirely satisfied with the way in which instruments, with and without live electronics. His my life was shaping up. I resigned after a year or works have been performed by orchestras such as so and went back to college. I studied philosophy the BBC Concert Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonicaˆ for a couple years and enrolled in a music degree de , the Chamber Group of , program, which is when I began my love affair with Ten Tors Orchestra, and the Heritage Orchestra. contemporary music and composition. His compositions have been featured at contempo- Richter: Does improvisation speak to you differ- rary music festivals, including Synthese` (Bourges), ently than nonimprovised conventional composi- Ultraschall (Berlin), Nuova Consonanza (Rome), tion? Do you think that improvisation can reflect Musica´ Viva (Lisbon), Encuentros de Musica´ Con- more of an individual’s personality than conven- temporanea´ (Santiago), EarZoom (Ljubljana), Mainly tional composition? Can you give us an example Mozart (San Diego, California), and the Peninsula from your own practice? Arts Contemporary Music Festival (Plymouth, UK). Miranda: These certainly are two different lan- This interview took place at Plymouth University guages. But in the context of your question, doing on 26 February and 3 July 2017, and we communi- “my own thing” was a way to rebel against tedious cated a number of times via e-mail in between. Web Czerny piano exercises. It is difficult for a child to links to access the recordings of all compositions understand that to master a musical instrument one cited in the interview are available in Table 1, with needs to study theory, practice scales, observe finger- ing and hand positioning, and so on. Improvisation Computer Music Journal, 42:1, pp. 10–22, Spring 2018 here has more to do with impatience, childlike play- doi:10.1162/COMJ a 00448 fulness, and curiosity rather than having anything c 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. against conventional composition.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Figure 1. Eduardo Reck Miranda preparing the piano for the performance of Biocomputer Rhythms.

done; there is no way to rewind a performance and change it. I am not comfortable with that.

Experimenting with Instruments and Technology

Richter: I am intrigued by the way in which the violin is played in The Turning of the Tide.How did you come up with the idea of playing the violin upside down? Miranda: This is one of those creative things that can happen without any premeditation whatsoever. In the 1980s I had been collaborating on a number of cultural projects with the visual artist, writer, and activist Elton Scartazzini in Porto Alegre, Brazil. As far as I knew, Elton did not play a musical instrument. One day I was practicing the violin and said jokingly that if he played the violin I would compose him a concerto. He laughed, grabbed my violin, and began to demonstrate how he could make sounds with the instrument in all sorts of ways. The “eureka” moment happened when he placed one end of the bow on his shoulder, as if it were the body of the instrument, and held the violin upside down with his right hand to scratch the strings on the bow. Well, he could play it after all, albeit rather unconventionally! I wrote him a multimedia piece, Konserto de Muzika´ Eletroplastika´ , which was premiered in September 1987 at the first Festival Latino- Americano de Arte e Cultura in Brazil [see Figure 2]. I subsequently composed The Turning of the Tide, I personally find nonimprovised composition for upside-down violin and electronics, which I expressively more powerful than improvisation. performed at the Fourth International Symposium However, I do use improvisation when I am compos- of Electronic Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in ing. For instance, the electroacoustic piece Gestures November 1993 and on a few other occasions in is an unedited recording of an improvisation session Scotland and Brazil. in the studio. And I occasionally Richter: When did you first start composing using leave a margin for improvised elements in my com- technology? What inspired you to continue along positions. For instance, there are no written scores this route? for the solo violin of The Turning of the Tide or for Miranda: Technology was also prominent in my the beatboxing part of Butterscotch Concerto. The upbringing. My father ran an electronics repair thing that I am not so interested in is music that is workshop and was a keen amateur radio operator. entirely composed on the fly, during a performance. I Before the Internet, amateur radio was a precursor prefer nonimprovised music because composing “of- of today’s social media. When I was a child I used fline” gives me more time to think, test ideas, and to spend hours fiddling with his radio receiver, so on. In live improvisation one cannot edit what is scanning for signals and listening to the waves.

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12 Table 1. Compositions by Eduardo Reck Miranda

Title Year Instrumentation Availability

Interlukido´ 1986 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/interludiko Vox Populis 1986 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/vox-populis Cidade Baixa 1986 Piano, clarinet, Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte 389.726.04-7, compact bassoon, triangle disc. Track 13 Fraktal 1987 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/moozyca/fraktal-miranda Anatema´ 1987 Flute, clarinet, Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte 389.726.04-7, compact bassoon disc. Track 5 Zenrinbau 1989 Ensemble of https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/zenrimbau berimbaus Generative Study 1990 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/gen-study Cellular Automata Study 1991 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Electroacoustic Samba I 1992 Electroacoustics Southern Cones: Music out of Africa and South America. 2000. Compact disc accompanying Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 10. Track 4 Noises 1991 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/noises The Turning of the Tide 1992 Upside down violin, https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/the-turning-of-the-tide electroacoustics Electroacoustic Samba II 1992 Electroacoustics Cultures Electroniques. 2003. Bourges, France: Mnemosyne´ Musique Media,´ 2003, compact disc. Disc 1, Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/electroacoustic-samba-ii

optrMscJournal Music Computer Electroacoustic Samba III 1992 Electroacoustics Cultures Electroniques 2003. Bourges, France: Mnemosyne´ Musique Media,´ compact disc. Disc 1, Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/electroacoustic-samba-iii Electroacoustic Samba X 1993 Electroacoustics Desde el otro lado, from Latin America. 1998. Black Rock, Connecticut: OO Discs oo45, compact disc. Track 1 Deep Resonance 1993 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Gestures 1992 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Jorge Borges takes Italo 1994 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/jorge-borges Calvino on a taxi journey in Berlin Olivine Trees 1994 Electroacoustics 2nd Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music. 1995. Canela, Brazil: Sociedade Brasiliera de Computac¸ao˜ SBC, compact disc. Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/olivine-trees Study for an Opera 1994 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Wee Samba 1994 Electroacoustics Hope. 1998. Liverpool, UK: Audio Research Editions ARECD101, compact disc. Track 48 https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/wee-samba Entre l’absurde et le Mystere` 1994 Chamber orchestra Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte, 389.726.04-7, compact disc. Track 14 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/entre-labsurde-et-le-mystere Entre o Absurdo e o Misterio´ . 1994. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Goldberg Edic¸oes˜ Musicais, score. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on02 October 2021

Table 1. Continued.

Title Year Instrumentation Availability

Goma Arabica´ 1995 Electroacoustics Mother Tongue. 2004. Baldock, UK: Sargasso, SCD28051 compact disc. Tracks 3-6 Wee Batucada Scotica 1996 String quartet Wee Batucada Scotica. 1998. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Goldberg Edic¸oes˜ Musicais, score. https://vimeo.com/55600019 Suıte´ para Vibrafone 1996 Vibraphone Suıte´ para Vibrafone 1996. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Goldberg Edic¸oes˜ Musicais, score. Requiem´ per una veu´ 1997 Mezzo-soprano, Mother Tongue 2004. Baldock, UK: Sargasso, SCD28051, compact disc. perduda. electroacoustics Tracks 3-6 1–Kyrie 2 – Gloria 3 – Sanctus-Benedictus 4 – Agnus Dei Grain Streams 1999 Piano, electro- New Sound 20 2002. Belgrade, Serbia: SOKOJ-MIC, compact disc. Tracks 1 – Maelstrom acoustics, live 5-7 2 – Scintillation electronics https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/grain-streams-maelstrom-for 3 – Vanishing Point

Richter Uh Ha 1999 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/uh-ha Le Jardin de Jer´ omeˆ 2001 Electroacoustics Mother Tongue. 2004 Baldock, UK: Sargasso, SCD28051 compact disc. Track 2 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/le-jardin-de-jerome Robotapithecos 2002 Electroacoustics Mother Tongue. 2004 Baldock, UK: Sargasso, SCD28051 compact disc. Track 9 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/robotapithecos PSQ Symphony #3 2003 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/psq-symphony-1 Ex Tetika´ Doquentiˆ 2003 Piano Porto 60: Catarina Domenici. 2004. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte, 1 – Banana Mecanicaˆ compact disc. Tracks 14-16 2 – Grenal https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/ex-tetika-doquenti 3 – Salario´ Mınimo´ Tiergarten 2006 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/tiergarten Sacra Conversazione, 2007 Electroacoustics Coletaneaˆ de Musica´ Eletroacustica´ Brasileira. 2009. Brasılia,´ Brazil: electroacoustic version Sociedade Brasileira de Musica´ Eletroacustica.´ Disc 2, Tracks 1–5 1 – From the Void . . . 2 – Cantus Firmus 3 – Euphony 4 – Flux 5–...totheZiggurat 13 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on02 October 2021 14

Table 1. Continued.

Title Year Instrumentation Availability

Sacra Conversazione, 2008 Orchestra, electro- https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/sacra-conversazione-excerpt orchestral version acoustics 1 – From the Void . . . 2 – Cantus Firmus 3 – Euphony 4 – Flux 5 – . . . to the Ziggurat Mind Pieces 2010 Chamber orchestra, http://intelligentarts.net/2016/07/eduardo-miranda 1 – Rewind prepared piano 2 – Evolve 3 – Batuke 4 – Automata 5 – Rhapsodia Waggle Dance 2010 Strings orchestra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beto 1IUo-I live electronics Mozart Reloaded 2010 Piano, electro- Mozart Reloaded. 2011. Baldock, UK: Sargasso, SCD28065LE compact 1 – Appassionata acoustics disc.

optrMscJournal Music Computer 2 – Dance of Shadows https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/mozart-reloaded-hip-hopped-for 3 – Hip-hopped Sound to Sea 2012 Orchestra, percus- Thinking Music: The inner workings of a composer’s mind. 2014. Ply- 1 – Quadrivium sion, church or- mouth, UK: Press, compact disc accompanying 2 – Prototype gan, choir, mezzo- book 3 – Raster Plot soprano https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/maranatha-intermezzo-from 4–Anathema -sound-to-sea 5 – Sonnet 55 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/sonnet-55-3rd-movement-of 6 – Maranatha -sound-to-sea 7 – A Fine Rattling Breeze Beethoven Deviations 2012 Piano, electro- https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/beethoven-deviations acoustics Die Lebensfreude 2012 Flute, clarinet, vi- https://vimeo.com/55536077 1 – Machina Vita olin, cello, piano, 2 – Machina est Finitum electroacoustics, live video Activating Memory 2013 String quartet, https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/activating-memory brain-computer music interfacing quartet Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on02 October 2021

Table 1. Continued.

Title Year Instrumentation Availability

Sounds from Underground 2013 Prepared piano, 3 https://vimeo.com/90796612 1 – Feelings Unheard of cellos, 2 double https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/feelings-unheard-of-1st-movement 2 – Upheaval basses -of-sounds-from-underground 3–Aftermath Biocomputer Music 2014 Prepared piano, https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/biocomputer-music biocomputer Shockwaves 2015 Violin concertino https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/shockwaves for chamber or- chestra, electro- Richter acoustics Biocomputer Rhythms 2015 Prepared piano, https://vimeo.com/163673832 percussion, bio- computer Vov¯ 2016 4 singers, marimba, https://vimeo.com/214331255 1–Las¯ eh¯ electroacoustics, https://vimeo.com/215431056 2–Rerize live electronics https://vimeo.com/215850123 3–Rai Butterscotch Concerto 2016 Chamber orchestra, https://vimeo.com/213078194 beatboxing, live electronics 15 Figure 2. Elton Figure 3. Eduardo Reck Scartazzinni performing Miranda (left) with the violin upside down in composer Moyses´ L. Filho Konserto de Muzika´ in the computer music Eletroplastika´ in 1987. studio that Miranda (Photo by Everton created in Porto Alegre, Ballardin.) Brazil. (Photo taken in 1986, Everton Ballardin.)

Richter: You mentioned that you built electronic circuits with which you could “make noises.” In your opinion, what is noise, what place does it have He had a top-notch receiver, which I have always in music? considered to be my first musical instrument. Then, Miranda: In the context of my previous response, in my teenage years I learned to build electronic by “noises” I mean electronic sounds that are not circuits with which I could make noises. necessarily musical notes or imitations of acoustic In hindsight, going back to college to study music musical instruments. More generally, however, I was a decisive move in my life. I soon became would define noise as sounds that are somewhat very interested in contemporary music. My early unwelcome in given contexts, such as background exposure to electronics and my background in hissing in recordings, the audience’s coughing in computing gave me a head start in using electronic classical music concerts, and cats caterwauling late technology in music. at night while one is trying to sleep. Nevertheless, if In the 1980s, still as a music student, I created any of these sounds became desirable—for example, a computer music lab at Universidade Federal if a composer uses samples of caterwauling and do Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, which coughing in a piece of electroacoustic music—then I believe was one of the first labs of this kind they are no longer noise, but elements of a musical in South America [see Figure 3]. It was at this composition. time that I started to experiment with algorithmic composition. Although there was a very active community of electroacoustic music Influences and Communication all over South America at the time, my point of departure was computer-generated music, which Richter: Could you tell us what it is about a piece of was rather unusual in that context. The piece music that inspires you? Fraktal, from 1987, is my first computer-generated Miranda: Pieces of music that inspire me are piece. I programmed an Apple II computer in Basic those that elicit feelings or fire up thoughts that to realize the piece on a Korg synthesizer. Engineers drift me away, that take me on imaginary journeys, at the computing department helped me build my or make me think of an abstract story or narrative. I own MIDI interface for the Apple II. also find inspiring pieces that embody a quirky idea

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 or suggest new approaches to music; for instance, I we felt that the circumstances were favorable to find the work of John Cage inspiring. grow a local audience with an appetite for new Richter: In my practice, I find that the quirky or music. Year by year we have been nurturing local different materials are often harder for the audience composers and performers, and we have been to appreciate. In your opinion, what makes a piece developing strategies to build our audience through that is different in its approach accessible? interviews with local radio and regional television, Miranda: One thing that makes it easier for public lectures, social media, preconcert talks, free audiences to appreciate novelty is to put familiar entrance to prefestival events—you name it. The materials in the mix, to create a context for the rest is history. The 2017 edition of the festival saw new ideas. This can be done in various ways. For a full house for the Saturday evening orchestral instance, my piece Mozart Reloaded, composed in concert, with four premieres and a standing ovation 2011, is a remix of Mozart sonatas for piano and in the end. [Interviewer’s note: concert reviewed by electronics. Gentle electronic processing of highly Philip Buttall 25 February 2017 in Seen and Heard recognizable musical materials provided a safety net International.] to introduce unfamiliar materials. Richter: I attended the 2017 Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, for which you were music director, and was impressed by the positive Composing with Computers attitude of the audience towards contemporary music. And the festival seems to have a relatively Richter: Could you talk to me about creative confi- large audience considering that Plymouth is not dence when composing with computing technology? known for its contemporary music scene. How did Do you, as the composer, feel that you have full the festival achieve this? control over what is happening? Miranda: I think that contemporary “classical” Miranda: In general, I do not tend to start from an music went through a revolution in the last century, overall compositional plan, or preconceived musical which occurred so quickly that audiences, the form. Instead, musical form emerges as I work with nonspecialist media, critics, and so on, did not the materials with which I am composing. It is as have time to catch up. It became largely alienated if I were sculpting something out of a raw piece of from the mainstream music industry. Speaking for stone, but I don’t have a clear idea of what I am myself, I used to be oblivious to audiences that did about to create. This is not to say that I am not in not appreciate contemporary music. Why should control of the emerging composition. I compromise the integrity of my wacky musical I use computers to generate raw materials for ideas for the sake of an uninformed audience? my pieces, and this engenders an exciting creative The experience I gained from creating, curating, process, which resonates with the book The Birth and composing for the Peninsula Arts Contemporary of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music, by Friedrich Music Festival changed my attitude towards audi- Nietzsche. In that book, Nietzsche suggested that ences, however. If they happen to be uninformed, great artistic creations result from the articulation then we ought to do something about it! of a mythological dichotomy between two aspects Nowadays I make an effort to take the audience called the “Apollonian” and the “Dionysian.” I am composing for into consideration. I strive to In ancient Greek mythology, Apollo was the god compose music that is somehow accessible, but I do of the sun and was associated with rational and remain wary of compromising the integrity of my logical thinking, self-control, and order. Conversely, ideas, preferences, and so on. There needs to be a Dionysus was the god of wine and was associated balance. with irrationalism, intuition, passion, and anarchy. Contemporary music was not on the radar of These two gods represent two conflicting creative the local classical music scene when conductor drives, constantly stimulating and provoking one Simon Ible and I created the festival in 2004. But another.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Although it dates from the 19th century, I identify moved to the UK to further my studies. So the spec- my own creative process with this notion. One side tra of sounds have always been important for me. of me is very methodical and objective, keen to use The spectral approach to music is very interesting automatically generated music, formalisms, and indeed, but I do not subscribe to spectral music as a models. Conversely, another side of me is more dogma. intuitive and metaphorical. I would say that each Richter: How does your “sculpting something side has it own agenda, so to speak, but neither has out of a raw piece of stone” metaphor relate to free rein. That is, they tend to inhibit each other: your interest in composing with algorithms and The more I attempt to swing to the Apollonian mathematics? These seem disparate approaches side, the stronger is the Dionysian force that pulls to composing, and they remind me of the histor- me in the opposite direction, and vice versa. This ical dichotomy between musique concrete` and dichotomy reminds me of the way in which our elektronische Musik. brains seem to work. There are parts of the human Miranda: Indeed, there is a difference, if you brain that are Apollonian, whereas others are like, between the notions of manually sculpting Dionysian. The Apollonian brain largely includes sound and automatically generating music by the frontal lobe of the cortex and, allegedly, the left means of mathematics or algorithms. But in my hemisphere. Generally, these areas are in charge of compositional practice these processes complement focusing attention to detail, seeing wholes in terms each other. I often program the computer to generate of their constituents, and making abstractions. They musical materials, which I subsequently craft into are systematic and logical. The Dionysian brain compositions. Occasionally, the use of algorithms includes subcortical areas, which are much older in is prominent, or vice versa, but in general these the evolutionary timeline, as well as, allegedly, the processes are well balanced in my music. right hemisphere. It perceives the world holistically and pushes us towards unfocused general views. I say “allegedly” because the distinction between Cellular Automata and Biocomputing the left and right hemispheres is controversial. Nevertheless, the notion that the Apollonian and Richter: I was interested by your piece Entre the Dionysian tend to excite and inhibit each other l’absurde et le mystere` for chamber orchestra. reminds me of the way in which the brain functions. Could you tell us the backstory of this piece? Excitatory and inhibitory processes pervade the Miranda: Entre l’absurde et le mystere` was functioning of our brain at all levels, from the composed in 1994 with CAMUS, software that I microscopic level of neurons communicating with developed in 1990 during my postgraduate studies one another to the macroscopic level of interaction at the University of York. In CAMUS (short for between larger networks of millions of neurons. Cellular Automata Music) I implemented a method to render music from the behavior of a cellular automaton called Game of Life. Music as Sculpture Richter: What is a cellular automaton? Miranda: Cellular automata, or CA, are generally Richter: Something you said a moment ago caught defined as mathematical tools to model a number of my imagination: “Sculpting something out of a raw phenomena on computers, ranging from economics piece of stone.” This reminds me of the notion and social sciences to biology and ecology. I was of sound as a model for spectral composition in fascinated by the way in which a combination of the same way that light influenced impressionist a few very simple CA rules could produce patterns painters. What is your opinion on the spectral on the computer screen that would expand, change approach to composition? shape, or die out. I was taken aback when I saw Miranda: Electroacoustic music played an im- the Game of Life for the first time in a lecture portant role in my education, in particular after I at York and I immediately thought of using it to

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 generate music. In a nutshell, I designed a method also have been composing with this technology. For to represent music in terms of CA patterns that instance, Activating Memory is a composition for makes it possible to generate music. I implemented eight performers: a string quartet and BCMI quartet CAMUS in the C programming language on an [see Figure 4]. The brain data of each member of Atari 1040 computer, and I introduced the method the BCMI quartet is harnessed to control a system in a paper published in the journal Interface [now that produces musical scores to be sight-read by a Journal of New Music Research, see Miranda member of the string quartet during the performance 1993]. My former PhD student, Kenny McAlpine, [for a video documentary, cf. Grabham 2015]. developed a more sophisticated version for Windows Richter: In your documentary Music Biocom- at the , which was described in puting [available at http://vimeo.com/163427284], Computer Music Journal [Miranda, McAlpine, and which shows footage of your piece Biocomputer Hoggar 1999]. The original version of CAMUS and Rhythms, you talk about harnessing slime mould to its documentation are freely available in a repository develop bioprocessors for musical. What made you for Atari enthusiasts [Interviewer’s note: available shift your focus from digital artificial intelligence to at www.atari-music.fddvoron.name/camus.htm]. I biology? still compose with this legendary piece of software Miranda: I would prefer to call this a natural pro- on my vintage Atari Falcon. For instance, I used it gression rather than shift. Music has developed in in Automata, the fourth movement of Mind Pieces, tandem with new developments in science and tech- composed in 2009. nology. It is likely that continuing developments in For Entre l’absurde et le mystere` I set up CAMUS computing will continue shaping the future of mu- to generate 10 minutes or so of music that I saved sic. People working in the field of “unconventional into a MIDI file. Then I imported the MIDI file into computing” are looking into developing new kinds a music notation editor and worked on it. The notes of computers, which is likely to pave the way for were edited, copied, pasted, removed, replicated, new kinds of approaches to music. moved, and so on. What I find exciting is that computer musicians do Richter: You are known for your work in the field not necessarily need to wait for these new computing of music neurotechnology, in particular, for your architectures to become commercially available to research into brain–computer music interfacing. start experimenting with them. I am proud that my How does this research relate to your compositional research team at ICCMR seems to be pioneering practice? the development of bioprocessors. Our research Miranda: Amazing achievements of , is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the especially in the fields of cognitive neuroscience electronic properties of organisms to engineer novel and computational neuroscience, have led to a bioelectronic systems and computing architectures deeper understanding of cognition and of our based on biology. We are focusing on harnessing the nervous system. I am interested in applying this unicellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum understanding to problems of design and control in to develop biomemristors. music technology [see Miranda et al. 2009]. Brain– Richter: What are biomemristors? computer music interfacing, or BCMI, is an example Miranda: The word memristor is a contraction of music neurotechnology. of “memory resistor.” Not yet widely industrial- A brain–computer interface, or BCI, is a system ized, this is a new fundamental electronic circuit that allows a person to control electronic devices element, a resistor that remembers its history. In by means of commands expressed by signals read contrast to the standard approaches to developing directly from the brain using appropriate brain- memristors—for instance, using titanium dioxide— scanning technology. A BCMI is a BCI system for our ambition is to develop organic memristors; that music [cf. Miranda et al. 2003]. My research into is, biomemristors. BCMI is aimed primarily at enabling people with We developed proof-of-concept biomemristors severe physical impairment to make music. But I and used them to build an interactive music system

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Figure 4. Performance of Royal Hospital for Activating Memory,a Neuro-disabilities, piece for four severely London. (Photo by motor-impaired patients Eduardo Reck Miranda.) and a string quartet, at the

that listens to the piano through a microphone those AI things now by default. I have coined and plays back responses through electromagnets the term “natural AI,” or NAI, for this new kind that vibrate the string of the same piano. We of AI. adapted the Magnetic Resonator Piano system Richter: AnewkindofAI...wouldyousaythat developed by Andrew McPherson [2010] for this your Biocomputer Rhythms piece is a new kind of purpose. The system translates sequences of musical computer music? notes into sequences of voltage values, which are Miranda: I think it is an unprecedented piece of converted into AC waveforms that stimulate the classical computer music; that is, classical music harnessed unicellular organism. Then the system where computing technology plays an important took successive measurements of the organism’s role in composition or performance. electric current and relayed them to an array of As far as I am concerned, the first great mile- electromagnets inside the piano, positioned to stone of classical computer music took place in vibrate the strings. This resulted in variations of 1957, with the composition Illiac Suite by Lejaren the original note sequences. For the composition Hiller and Leonard Isaacson. They programmed Biocomputer Rhythms the electromagnets also the ILLIAC machine at University of Illinois at vibrate percussion instruments as well the piano’s Urbana-Champaign to compose a string quartet. strings [see Figure 5]. The acronym ILLIAC stood for Illinois Automatic We are currently perfecting a technique to use Computer, and it was one the first electronic the biomemristor to store and retrieve information computers ever built, comprising thousands of [Braund and Miranda 2017]. What I find fascinating vacuum tubes, or valves. Hiller transcribed the here is that I used to spend a lot of my time results of the machine’s calculations onto a mu- developing software in LISP to endow machines sical score for string quartet. Various important with musical AI. Our biomemristors do most of inventions and developments have taken place

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Figure 5. Rehearsal of Biocomputer Rhythms at the ICCMR studio (Edward Braund on the microscope and Eduardo Reck Miranda on the piano). (Photo by Lloyd Russell.)

since, notably the invention of the transistor and together with musicians. I think they mark the the subsequent development of the microchip. The beginning of our present times, where personal microchip enabled the manufacturing of computers computers, laptops, notebooks, tablets, and even that became progressively more accessible to a smart phones are used in musical composition and wider sector of the population, including, of course, performance. composers. The next great milestone is not yet clear to me. It The second great milestone took place in the early might not have happened yet. 1980s, with Repons´ for chamber orchestra and six Richter: Might it be biocomputer rhythms? solo percussionists, an unprecedented composition Miranda: I would love to think so, but only time by Pierre Boulez realized at IRCAM [the Institut de will tell. Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique] in Paris. In my opinion, Repons´ was the first significant piece of classical music to use digital computing References technology to perform live on stage: The machine “listened” to the soloists and synthesized audible Braund, E., and E. R. Miranda. 2017. “On Building Practical Biocomputers for Real-World Applications: responses on the spot, during performance. To Receptacles for Culturing Slime Mould Memristors achieve this, Boulez used the pioneering 4X System and Component Standardisation.” Journal of Bionic developed by Giuseppe Di Giugno and his team Engineering 14(1):151–162. at IRCAM. Repons´ and the 4X System represent Grabham, T. 2015. “Paramusical Ensemble.” Movie the beginning of an era of increasingly widespread documentary available at vimeo.com/143363985. use of digital computers to perform live on stage Accessed 7 July 2017.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 McPherson, A. 2010. “The Magnetic Resonator Piano: Miranda, E. R., et al. 2003. “On Harnessing the Elec- Electronic Augmentation of an Acoustic Grand Piano.” troencephalogram for the Musical Braincap.” Computer Journal of New Music Research 39(3):189–202. Music Journal 27(2):80–102. Miranda, E. R. 1993. “Cellular Automata Music: An Miranda, E. R., et al. 2009. “Computer Music Meets Interdisciplinary Project.” Interface 22(1):3–21. Unconventional Computing: Towards Sound Synthesis Miranda, E. R., K. McAlpine, and S. Hoggar. 1999. with In Vitro Neural Networks.” Computer Music “Making Music with Algorithms: A Case Study.” Journal 33(1):9–18. Computer Music Journal 23(2):19–30.

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