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Cyborg dancing: generative systems for man-machine musical improvisation

One of the major motivating forces in generative art is the desire to explore uncharted spaces, to create artefacts that escape the designer’s control: to attain emergence. This paper focuses on the design of digital systems that would be suitable partners for man-machine collaborative exploration of these spaces. Limitations of existing approaches that impede the artist/user’s creative explorations are reviewed. The central problem is framed as a constraint on the variety of outcomes that are possible. Taking inspiration from existing musical practices, an alternative approach is proposed and illustrated with a working example of a generative man-machine system for improvised musical performance. The principle difference between this and many other digital generative artistic tools is that whereas the material from which the final artefact is made is usually defined, here it is provided in real time by the performer. This appears to increase the creative freedom of the user, whilst preserving the independence of the digital generative process and offers a practical alternative to the slippery concept of creative emergence in increasing the variability of possible artistic artefacts.