On the evolution of music in a society of self-taught digital creatures
Eduardo Reck Miranda · Digital Creativity · 2003
We are investigating the potential of artificial life (Alife) models for musical creativity. This paper begins with a brief introduction to our research scenario and then revisits two cellular automata-based generative music systems of our own design: one for synthesising sounds (Chaosynth) and another for generating musical passages (CAMUS). Then, it presents the preliminary results of ongoing research aimed at the design of models to study the origins and evolution of music. Here we introduce a model where a society of distributed and autonomous but co-operative agents evolves repertoires of short melodies from scratch, by interacting with one another. Instead of mapping the behaviour of specific Alife algorithms onto sound or music, as in Chaosynth and CAMUS, this new research addresses the possibility of implementing collective generative music systems, using virtual musicians who learn how to compose and play by themselves and with people interacting with them. We demonstrate by means of a concrete example the important role of mimetic interactions for creativity in a society of software agents furnished with a vocal synthesiser, a hearing apparatus and a simple brain capable of making association between motor and perceptual parameters.