Output details

The Fluxus Tree

Portfolio output 4 (see attached WEBLINK and Portfolio DVD-ROM; The content on the web links to equivalent material as to be found on the DVD-ROM)

The Fluxus Tree, (also related, Fluxus, Player Piano, Three Streams and Quantum2) (algorithmic composition, physical interaction, live notation display)

A series of related original composition(s), software and hardware items, investigating automatic, live, algorithmic composition with live generation and performance of musical notation, including technical and academic underpinning, to include paper presentation and software publication.

live notation. If Calder’s Violin successfully applied this to the single line of a violin part, these pieces seek to do the same for a two staved piano part. It is hoped in the future to extend the method further to multi-player ensembles. In addition, they seek to investigate the use of physical movement, especially by skilled performers such as dancers, in the generation of notation which is then performed concurrently by skilled instrumental musicians. To this end, in addition to the above compositions and interfaces, a specific set of interfaces, including two versions of Threads and two Flexi-fluxuses as well as a prototype experimental interface, the Digiphone, has been developed and used in papers and presentations such as Notating Musical Movement.

The sequence of compositions The Fluxus Tree, Three Streams and Quantum Canticorum show this investigation into the mediation of live notation with physical activity. The Fluxus Tree and Quantum (the latter a more mature and sophisticated piece) each utilise the movements of one or more dancers. Three Streams, a short proof of concept piece, requires only one performer/controller (myself) and one musician. Three Streams has that name because of its joining of the three research streams of algorithmic composition, live notation and physical interaction. Quantum Canticorum makes use, for the first time, of the Microsoft interface the Kinect, providing skeleton-tracking data used to trigger and modulate expressive algorithms and the live generation of notation.