Retroaction Between Music and Physiology: An Approach from the Point of View of Emotions - Guide to Brain-Computer Music Interfacing - page 251

Table 11.1 An excerpt of MuZICO ' s musical parameters intervals
Parameter (unit) V E min V E max

Tempo (bpm) [0.1; 60] [144; 300]

Spectrum Muted Bright

Notes attack slope (ms) [100; 1000] [1; 30]

Notes pitch (Hz) [110; 220] [440; 880]

Instrumental sounds Natural Synthetic

Nature of sounds Percussive Sustained

Number of voices 1 Many

Notes density Low High

synthesis algorithm, or by the control of the cutoff frequency of a low-pass lter

applied to a sample player.

11.2.3 Applications

The MuZICO system has already been presented to various audiences in artistic
(use in concert as a generative musical accompaniment) and scienti c mediation

(presentation during workshops and as an interactive station) contexts. Its appli-
cations can therefore be artistic, educational, or therapeutic.
In the artistic context, MuZICO has been used in two con gurations: One,

strongly implying one of the authors as a saxophone player, consists in generating
the accompaniment from the breath, heart rate, or EEG sensors, as an improvisation
support for the musician. Concretely, this configuration has been used during
electroacoustic music concerts organized by the SCRIME [at the March

é de Lerme

in Bordeaux (see Fig. 11.1 ), and at the H ô tel de R é gion d ' Aquitaine], or during

performances (at the Cap Sciences scienti c museum and at the i-boat club in

Bordeaux). The other has been set up in the context of the ANR Care project and
allows a dancer (Gaël l Domenger) to generate the music supporting his dance

improvisation thanks to a motion-capture suit (see Fig. 11.2 ). A public show
involving this con

ë

guration took place at the Casino de Biarritz in March 2011.
In a more educational context, various sessions introducing the MuZICO system
have been presented to the public on an ad hoc basis: Workshops were held during
the Eur Aquitaine,

and during the Semaine du Son 2012 at Cap Sciences. In a more sustained way, an
interactive station allowing to test the system was set up in Cap Sciences during the
exhibition Num

ê ka days of the F ê te de la Science 2011 at the H ô tel de R é gion d '

tre (from march to December 2011). The public
could interact with MuZICO thanks to a skin conductivity sensor that was inte-
grated to the station.
Concerning the therapeutic domain, the potential usefulness of music in the

é riquement V ô

eld
of relaxation techniques has already been discussed (Ganidagli et al. 2005 ; Loewy
et al. 2005 ; Zhang et al. 2005 ; Peretz et al. 1998 ; Sammler et al. 2007 ; Trainor and