Composing with Swarm Algorithms - Creating interactive audio-visual pieces with flocking behavior
Jan C. Schacher, Daniel Bisig, Martin Neukom · University of Michigan Library Repository · 2011
In this paper, methods and concepts for algorithmic musical composition with flocking algorithms are discussed. Taking three pieces from an exhibition as examples, the strategies for building the specific relationships between each swarm-system and its musical results are shown. General considerations about the structures of self-organising systems and their potential for shaping musical dynamics as well as about adaptive and interactive behaviours in an installationcontext follow. The central aspects of a low-level unified algorithmic thinking in artistic processes are made evident and further scenarios for the organisation of flocking systems and the application to algorithmic musical composition are developed. Finally, some details are given about the technical tools that were used in the implementations.