Processes and Potentials Composing through objects, networks and interactions Bjarni Gunnarsson Master's Thesis Institute of Sonology The Hague May 2012 Abstract This dissertation is concerned with strategies for composing computer music. It is motivated by an interest in problems concerning the interaction and relationships between materials and processes and their influence on development and form. The main objective is to create a framework of ideas and technical solutions that could lead to novel possibilities when creating computer music and experiencing the compositional process. Different processes create musical compositions and an associative approach will be presented where the aim is to relate these various aspects. The relations occur by binding operative objects, control polarities, sound processes and networks together. These relations are interactive and dynamic where compositional focus is put on forming and manipulating these relationships. A compositional environment implementing these ideas will be introduced, along with a discussion of musical compositions inspired by them. 2 Acknowledgments A great number of people have inspired, helped or supported me during the past two years. I would like to thank only a few of them here. First of all I would very much like to thank my teachers Paul Berg, Kees Tazelaar and Richard Barrett for inspiring ideas, helpful assistance and strong guidance during this time. I would also like to thank all the staff and students at the Institute of Sonology for participating in creating such an inspiring place and for constant exchange of ideas. I would then like to thank all the people that helped me creating and correcting this thesis. Finally I would like to thank my family for their support and of course Marie Guilleray for an incredible amount of inspiration, insight, support and love. 3 Contents _______________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Bringing Forward ....................................................................................................................................................7 2.1 The Creative Process...........................................................................................................................................7 2.2 Scales and States................................................................................................................................................ 15 2.3 Materials, Processes and Behavior..................................................................................................................19 2.4 Emergence and Causality.................................................................................................................................23 2.5 Time, Memory and Succession....................................................................................................................... 29 3. Representations......................................................................................................................................................32 3.1 Music Systems....................................................................................................................................................32 3.2 Objects and Processes......................................................................................................................................35 3.3 Polarities..............................................................................................................................................................40 3.4 Nodes, Relations and Interaction....................................................................................................................47 3.5 Networks.............................................................................................................................................................51 4. The EPOC Environment ....................................................................................................................................55 4.1 Design Considerations......................................................................................................................................55 4.2 Usage Examples.................................................................................................................................................58 4.3 Implementation and Architecture...................................................................................................................64 4.4 Reflections.......................................................................................................................................................... 69 5. Musical Issues ........................................................................................................................................................71 5.1 Particulars and Intervention............................................................................................................................ 71 5.2 Attention and Predictability.............................................................................................................................76 5.3 Changes and Conditions.................................................................................................................................. 80 5.4 Potential or Actual Occasions.........................................................................................................................84 6. Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................88 References.....................................................................................................................................................................89 A. List of pieces and performances......................................................................................................................94 B. EPOC installation and examples.....................................................................................................................96 C. Description of EPOC package contents.......................................................................................................97 D. Contents of the companion DVD.................................................................................................................100 4 1. Introduction _______________________________________________________________________ When I direct my attention inward to contemplate my own self […] I perceive at first, as a crust solidified on the surface, all the perceptions which come to it from the material world. These perceptions are clear, distinct, juxtaposed or juxtaposable one with another; they tend to group themselves into objects […] But if I draw myself in from the periphery towards the center […] I find an altogether different thing. There is beneath these sharply cut crystals and this frozen surface, a continuous flux, which is not comparable to any flux I have even seen. There is a succession of states each of which announces that which follows and contains that which precedes it. […] I could not have said where any one of them finished or where another commenced. In reality no one begins or ends, but all extend into each other. (Bergson, 2012, Chapter 1, para. 9) This thesis is the result of an exploratory process which was initially concerned with possibilities. The main motivations concerned finding new and creative approaches for making computer music. Composing this kind of music was already something I had been occupied with for some time. However, the applied methods of creating the music seemed to excite me increasingly less. The way I approached a piece of music was purely goal-orientated. The final result was all that mattered. It should be interesting, powerful, compact but also beautiful and original. How I got there was not important and just something that had to be done. Of course creative situations and inspiring moments occurred, but somehow I felt the creative process should be made more interesting. This is what I wanted to explore and make fundamental to my project. The choice was made to concentrate on processes, relations and the creation of compositionally interesting situations. These could be unified by considering events such as the compositional process, the listening process, the temporal process or sound processes as sharing general attributes. By associating these, potentials emerge of connecting different elements of their totality in novel ways. A theoretical framework which unites various aspects of musical composition is clearly attractive for a composer to develop. I will try to do this in the following discussion, but I will however not constrain all discussed topics to my proposed view. The important drive behind all this is to discover how various compositional activities can relate in new and original ways. This means to question them, expand their functions and try to develop novel associations. In order to combine working modes and to compose on several levels simultaneously, I sense the need for an approach that addresses the possible relationships between musical processes on a fundamental level. I feel that new and exciting electronic music should challenge