Lately I have been thinking that it would be interesting to try using
artificial life simulations as sources of control signals for sound
objects. I've seen some examples of this done, for example with
cellular automata. I think the problem with this is that it's too hard
to see in advance what effect changes to the system parameters will
have on the output. In general, the fact that artificial life involves
lots of really simple interactions between the system's elements
producing interesting / complex behavior means that it will always be
difficult to predict how the system will behave.
On the other hand, I think the inherent difficulty in precisely
controlling artificial life is also precisely what makes them
interesting as musical elements. A live performance with tools like
this would be more like a jam session between a musician and the
system. I guess the important thing would be to reach a balance
between the system being completely opaque and it having a certain
amount of complexity / unpredictability.
Has anybody already seen interesting examples of this kind of thing?
Any general thoughts on the subject?
Miller Peterson
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