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THE PHILOSOPHICAL RATIONALE OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED MUSIC ANALYSIS: INFORMATION THEORY AND AESTHETICS

Nico Schuler
Michigan State University

Most research in the area of computer-assisted music analysis during the last 50 years has been carried out, again and again, without any explicit review of preceding attempts and accomplishments. Even the most recent research bears traces of two fundamental flaws that have plagued most research carried out to date: there is no comprehensive historical framework for computer-assisted music analysis, nor is there any critical evaluation of the methods applied to computer-assisted music analysis.

This paper will start filling these two gaps with a critical, historical account of the (original) philosophical rationale of computer-assisted music analysis: information theory and aesthetics. The paper will show how the emergence of methods of computer-assisted music analysis is related to the development of information theory, and how information theory was applied to aesthetics. This philosophical rationale was ultimately provided by several people: George D. Birkhoff, Abraham Moles, and by Max Bense and his disciples Helmar Frank, Rul Guntzenhäuser, Siegfried Maser, and Frieder Nake. Using information theory, all of those people sought either to explain some aspects of aesthetic reflection and artistic cognition, or both, or to analyze or synthesize 'artistic artifacts.'

Biographical Information: Nico Schuler

Nico Schuler holds the M.A. in musicology from Greifswald University (Germany) 1995. Currently, he is a doctoral student in Music Theory at Michigan State University and will graduate in August 2000 with the dissertation "Methods of Computer-Assisted Music Analysis: History, Classification, and Evaluation." Since 1999, Mr. Schuler has been a part-time instructor of music theory and music literature at Central Michigan University.

G.J. Callon

[ http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/musi/callon/4103-13/4113.htm ]

Context driven topologies

[ http://www.contextdriventopologies.org ]

Projet sur plusieurs années de collaboration entre artistes et théoriciens

( mathématiciens), dirigé par « Accuracy and aesthetics »

[ http://www.accuracyandaesthetics.com ]

Visualization of Context Driven Topologies

70010298 Royalty-free Getty Images	There is a boundary between what we know and don’t know that is being renegotiated all the time. We propose an evolving system to record, analyze and measure meaning and information in data using infinitely detailed patterns and generative forms to recognize and portray context. We think this will clarify the role of meaning in data, characterize information and provide a placeholder for undefined meaning to be represented.
	ACETYLCHOLINE from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
nature.com guide to the human genome	METHOD & PURPOSE: We will attempt to capture the interpretive process at the source using prototype recording, presentation and organizing techniques. We are gathering 10 sets of original theorists’ code, creating 10 new abstract artworks, discussing and documenting the encoding, creative and interpretive processes by looking carefully at the imagery and mathematical relationships in the code and artworks. Concepts will be illustrated through and series of private workshops and public lectures presented to 10 cultures and translated into 10 natural languages. We will use this information, and relationships between the information, to arbitrarily structure 1 model whose content includes: the language of the talks, interactions and points of view; the images, technical papers, mathematics, simulations, figures, sounds and pacing of the talks, interactions and points of view; a representation of the artwork, the original theorists code and digital artwork; placeholders for non-digital aspects of the code and artwork; comparisons between the simultaneous interpretation into 1 language and more careful translation into 10 languages; convenient units and structures for natural language translations and subsequent modifications to these structures to embed imagery and mathematics that do not need to be translated to convey meaning. We will represent drawing conclusions out from components using aesthetic configurations that will become an evaluated set of context driven topologies. The topologies underlying mathematical structure automatically generates patterns which evolve into forms, textures and tones to represent information as it is discussed, presented, recorded, identified and used as components in new conclusions. The academic work of this project is trying to design the ultimate compression, search and extraction algorithm, where the functions are the always same, but the output varies in response to the users’ knowledge and preferences - the input, or way the query is posed. Future topologies are self-perpetuating, self-contextualizing patterns that do not need to be monitored or maintained. They are ideal forms, independent of machine formats, to funnel massive quantities of data, comparisons, interpretations and open questions generated by large scale museum and library digitisation, automated experiment, and specialized databases.

Ivar Hagendoorn

[ http://www.ivarhagendoorn.com ]

Approche mathématique et cognitive de la danse


	Between Dance Mathematics and the bRAIN
My research starts from the question why it is that watching dance can be fascinating (and sometimes boring), from the observation that when improvising dancers often get stuck and from the objective to create more dynamic and more intricate spatial patterns. Dance, Perception, Aesthetic Experience and the Brain » Ever since I saw my first dance performance I have wondered why it is that I am both fascinated and touched by someone or a group of people moving about on a stage, in a studio or even on the street. At the same time I have wondered why at other times it leaves me completely indifferent. This question I have tried to address by combining insights from cognitive neuroscience and aesthetics. more... The Cognitive Neuroscience of Dance Improvisation » When freely improvising dancers often get stuck either because they sense they are repeating themselves or because they don’t know how to bring structure into their dancing. This observation forms the starting point both for an inquiry into the phenomenon itself and for an attempt to address it. Inspired by my readings into the neural mechanisms of human movement and by the work of the American choreographer and artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet William Forsythe, I am developing a system for generating movements and defining a sequential and/or hierarchical structure within a sequence of movements. The system builds on the knowledge a dancer already has and includes the implicit properties of the motor system and the movements or 'motor schemas' that constitute our action repertoire. more. . . 'Emergent Choreography' or The Emergence of Structures & Patterns in Dance Improvisation and Choreography » A choreographer can only overlook a certain amount of complexity, which is why the spatial organization of most choreographed ballets is more or less the same. With more time it is possible to create more intricate patterns but even then spatial variability is limited by the fact that relations between dancers have to be communicated to the dancers. Complexity theory has shown that a central governing agent is not necessary for the emergence of intricate patterns or cooperative behavior. However, simply transferring the rules that govern for instance the flocking of birds to dance doesn’t work. These rules only apply under certain conditions. I am therefore developing a new system in a continuous dialogue with my work in the studio. It won't come as a surprise that some of my favorite ballets are highly complex, e.g. Eidos:Telos by William Forsythe and Biped by Merce Cunningham. This is what I revel in. Yet no matter how much I love these pieces, I don't think it's the final word. Besides, for me nothing beats the emergence of a complex structure. more. . .

Dana

Raymond Ascheim

Institut des Hautes Dimensions

[ http://www.polytopics.org ]

[ http://www.polytopics.org/rapport.pdf ]

Du 3D aux hautes dimensions. Visualisation et concrétisation des manifestations physiques et géométriques dans des espaces de dimension supérieure à 3.

Museum of the History of Science

Oxford

Musée d’Histoire de la Science

Belles expositions en ligne, où l’histoire de la science croise l’histoire de l’art.

En particulier : Les Mesureurs. Une image flamande des mathématiques au

16 ème siècle.