Performing Gesture and Time via an Emergent Database
Doug Van Nort, Ian Jarvis, Kieran Maraj · 2020
This paper presents distinct modes of engaging with and structuring time, temporality and gesture as explicit units of semantic information. The work presents the newest iteration of a long-standing approach to instrumental system design and performance in which input gesture, sonic gesture and intermediate layers of information are stored as richly-structured "temporal semantic units" in a per-formable database, which can be queried via embodied action in order to be used in improvised performance contexts. This includes the mapping of temporal envelopes and the on-line training of machine learning algorithms. The history and lineage of ideas leading up to this current work are presented, as well as the novel system architecture and distinct modes of interaction that are composed from the perspective of the composer/performer engaged in the practice of electroacoustic improvisation.