Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To clarify further, we shall take a look at some examples. Native Instruments'
Absynth
7
is a virtual synthesiser, with scores of user-adjustable parameters to control
a range of synthesis techniques. Alongside these determinate controls, Absynth has
a feature called 'mutate'. When triggered, this nudges its parameters in random
directions. Given the complex web of relationships between parameters, the output
can thus be wildly unpredictable, whilst retaining a link to the previous settings. This
may prompt the user to make further adjustments or suggest new sonic directions,
purely through chance discoveries.
The tabletop
reacTable
(Jordà et al.
2007
) device likewise has a
reacTogon
in-
strument which uses chance processes in hands-on interaction. Sequences of events
are generated by nodes on a hexagonal grid, which collide and intersect to create
unpredictable chain reactions, generating note sequences which could not be antic-
ipated ahead of time. Effectively, we are exploring the space of
interactions
with a
partner system, making use of its inherent scope for serendipity.
The fundamental benefit of these systems is that they can push us into new forms
of creative adventure, by augmenting both the generative and evaluative aspects of
the central creative loop. By introducing processes from outside the canon of tra-
ditional musical practice we are injecting innovation which may not have occurred
through incremental, exploratory development. Such processes can generate new
fragments of material that can be assimilated and modified by the artist.
In an interview, Björk Gudmundsdottir recounts an anecdote regarding composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen and his everyday pursuit of the unfamiliar.
Stockhausen told me about the house he built himself in the forest and lived in for ten
years. It's made from hexagonal pieces of glass and no two rooms are the same, so they are
all irregular. It's built out of angles that are reflective and it's full of spotlights. The forest
becomes mirrored inside the house. He was explaining to me how, even after ten years, there
would still be moments when he didn't know where he was, and he said it with wonder in
his eyes. And I said, “That's brilliant: you can be innocent even in your own home”, and he
replied, “Not only innocent, but curious.” (Gudmundsdottir
1996
)
We experience a similar effect when we switch to a non-standard interface for
composition. From experience, the first interactions with a system such as the
reacTogon
or McCormack's
Nodal
(McCormack et al.
2008
) give rise to a creative
play which pushes the user towards unfamiliar terrain. By overcoming the habits
formed when repeatedly using a given interface or mode of creative operation, our
curiosity and openness are restored.
In all of these cases, the “central loop of the creative process” (McGraw and
Hofstadter
1993
) is being widened to incorporate agencies which are not present in
what may be considered “normative” creativity. The Romantic conception of an iso-
lated painter, toiling for weeks over a canvas in visual engagement with his subject,
makes way for a hybrid, collective creative intelligence, whose output is the result
of an internal tussle between heterogeneous and nonaligned forces.
