Computer-mediated performance and extended instrument design
Thomas Ciufo · 2009
This talk will explore conceptual and technical approaches to computer-mediated improvisational performance. Many artists are pursuing a musical practice that combines the roles of composer, system/instrument designer, and performer/improviser. In addition to integrating these often overlapping roles, it is also possible to use computation and interactive systems to refashion the very nature of improvisational performance practice. Many improvisers feel that their musical intuition and ideas are more developed than their physical skills or instrumental technique. This leads to the idealistic notion that somehow, we should be able to focus our energy on the higher-level conceptual aspects of improvisational music/sound making, and use the available technology to reduce some of the physical constraints, steer the larger formal progression, and manage the low-level necessities.