UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Sinew & Ecosystem One: two works driven by a self-regulating performance system DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology by Kevin Patrick Anthony Dissertation Committee: Professor Mari Kimura, Chair Assistant Professor Lukas Ligeti Assistant Professor Theresa J Tanenbaum Professor Vincent Olivieri 2020 © 2020 Kevin Patrick Anthony DEDICATION To my dear wife and young children in recognition of their untold sacrifices and their unceasing love and support ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Acronyms .......................................................................................................................... vii Vita ............................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract of the thesis ...................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Research and Literature......................................................................................... 4 2.1. Improvisational Freedom .......................................................................................................4 2.1.1. John Zorn’s Cobra (1984)............................................................................................. 6 2.2. Composer Authorship ............................................................................................................8 2.2.1. Agostino Di Scipio’s Two Pieces of Listening and Surveillance (2013) ..................... 9 2.3. A Sense of Shared Purpose ..................................................................................................10 2.3.1. George Lewis’ Voyager.............................................................................................. 11 2.4. Repulsion .............................................................................................................................12 2.5. Theoretical Reconciliation of Improvisation and Composition ...........................................13 2.5.1. Enactive Cognition ..................................................................................................... 14 2.5.2. Emergence .................................................................................................................. 18 John Conway’s Game of Life (1970) .................................................................. 21 Alvin Lucier’s I am Sitting in a Room (1969) ..................................................... 23 Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning, Paragraph 7 (1968) ............................ 25 Terry Riley’s In C (1964) .................................................................................... 27 2.6. Technological Reconciliation of Improvisation and Composition ......................................28 2.6.1. Continuous Process..................................................................................................... 28 John Cage’s Reunion (1968) ............................................................................... 32 Tim Blackwell’s Swarm Music (2003) ................................................................ 34 2.6.2. The Audiovisual Element ........................................................................................... 35 Noisefold’s Emanations ...................................................................................... 37 2.6.3. Operational Logics ..................................................................................................... 39 Horizontal Operational Logics in Minecraft ....................................................... 41 Developing and Performing Self-regulating Performance Systems ................. 47 3.1. The Self-regulating Performance System ............................................................................47 3.2. Ecosystem One (2019) .........................................................................................................49 3.2.1. Ecosystem One: Intrinsically Continuous .................................................................. 50 3.2.2. Ecosystem One: Conveying Cause and Effect ........................................................... 55 3.2.3. Ecosystem One: Visual Elements ............................................................................... 58 iii 3.2.4. Ecosystem One: Mappings in a Self-regulating System ............................................ 62 Ecosystem One: Creating Self-regulating Behavior ............................................ 64 3.2.5. Ecosystem One: Analysis ........................................................................................... 67 3.3. Sinew (2020) ........................................................................................................................70 3.3.1. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic ........................................................................... 71 3.3.2. Sinew: Operational Logics ......................................................................................... 73 3.3.3. Sinew: Feature Logic .................................................................................................. 83 Low-level Features .............................................................................................. 84 Low-level Features: Spectral Flux in Unity ........................................................ 85 Low-level Features: Smoothing and Scaling ...................................................... 86 High-level Features ............................................................................................. 88 Mapping Tool: The Sigmoid Function ................................................................ 89 3.3.4. Sinew: Analysis .......................................................................................................... 92 Concluding Thoughts............................................................................................ 96 References .................................................................................................................................... 99 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 John Conway's Game of Life, the Exploder. Step 0 (left) and step 45 (right). .............. 22 Figure 2 Screenshot of a Max patch demonstrating a discrete process. ....................................... 29 Figure 3 Screenshot of a Max patch demonstrating a continuous process. .................................. 31 Figure 4 Screenshot of a Max patch used in Ecosystem One (2019) exhibiting data-centric imagery. ................................................................................................................ 36 Figure 5 The MUGIC™ sensor. Project led by Mari Kimura. ..................................................... 36 Figure 6 Performance of Recourse (2019). ................................................................................... 37 Figure 7 From a performance of Noisefold's Emanations. ........................................................... 38 Figure 8 The initial moment of beginning a new Minecraft world. .............................................. 42 Figure 9 Potential final experiences in a Minecraft world. Functional computer, LPG 2013 (left). Hermitcraft season six shopping district, GoodTimesWithScar 2020 (middle). New player punching a tree (right). ...................................................................... 43 Figure 10 Quest Log from World of Warcraft Classic. ................................................................ 44 Figure 11 Piston block from Minecraft. Retracted (left) and extended (right). ............................ 45 Figure 12 Max patch displaying performance data for Ecosystem One. ...................................... 52 Figure 13 Max subpatch................................................................................................................ 53 Figure 14 Screenshot of the Ocean Mist music visualizer in Windows Media Player. ................ 55 Figure 15 From a performance of Ecosystem One (2019). .......................................................... 56 Figure 16 The basic state of Ecosystem One's virtual environment. ............................................ 58 Figure 17 A state of extreme distortion in Ecosystem One. ......................................................... 60 Figure 18 Animated tree mesh built in Blender. Calm (left), turbulent (right). ........................... 61 Figure 19 “OSCsend” Max patch abstraction for OSC communication. ...................................... 63 Figure 20 Mapping diagram for Ecosystem One (2019). ............................................................. 64 Figure 21 Max patch demonstrating self-regulating