Output details

127 Haiku and automated algorithmic composition

Portfolio output 1 (see attached WEBLINK and Portfolio DVD-ROM; The content on the web links to equivalent material as to be found on the DVD-ROM)

127 Haiku and automated algorithmic composition:

including (2011) A principled approach to developing new languages for live coding Samuel Aaron, Alan F. Blackwell, Richard Hoadley and Tim Regan, Proceedings of NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression), Oslo (ISBN: 978-82-991841-7-5) and two other UK conference papers

One Hundred and Twenty Seven Haikus is a primary instance of a sequence of work developing automatic, algorithmic music creation within the framework of the SuperCollider programming environment. The composition has developed from earlier work using hardware synthesisers and computers (The Copenhagen Interpretation (1999)), and hardware synthesisers and SuperCollider (Many Worlds (2008)). Using SuperCollider alone allows a degree of sophistication in these areas on construction unparalleled elsewhere in music software. In 2010 I created a new version, One Hundred and Twenty Eight Haikus which included bespoke, self-designed and constructed hardware interfaces (also see Triggered below, output 2) and elements of live-coding, (see co-authored NIME paper on live coding, below).

The work has spawned a number of research items: both performances and papers. One of the most important has been the co-authored NIME paper (2011) which investigates live aspects of algorithmic coding. It is also a result of a collaboration which has been very fruitful in many other respects.

A final aspect of the work, and of the collaboration mentioned above was the commissioning of 128 Messages. While this involves similar algorithmic processes, these are triggered and controlled using mobile devices. This was sponsored by the ‘Enterprising Academics’ scheme and first performed during the Sounds Like Mobility conference in Cambridge in 2011.