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Overview | PDF
The concept for this workshop was inspired by John Maeda’s “Human
Powered Computer Experiment”.
In this experiment Maeda recreated the internal operations of a simple
computer using people to physically transport handwritten instructions
and data to and from the CPU, RAM, FPU, etc. Participating in this type
of experiment enables one to transfer abstract concepts from their body
to their brain.
In a similar spirit, this workshop develops a group workflow using the
model of a simple genetic algorithm (SGA) with the result being an emergent
work of music/sound art.
The idea of using a SGA as a conceptual framework evolved out of my research
in information flow used as a catalyst to construct emergent content.
Also, while doing research for a project that utilized genetic algorithms
I saw that many of the ideas embodied in the SGA could also be used to
construct a framework for my open source content creation workshop.
The SGA workflow for the group is constructed in the following fashion:
• A random pool of open source sound files is established
on a server and will serve as the ‘gene pool’;
• a fitness function is applied to sound files (implementation
of the fitness function is still being developed);
• the resulting ‘parent’ files are then moved into
a ‘mating pool’;
• two parent files are randomly chosen by workshop participants
to ‘mate’;
• mating is accomplished by applying various crossover operations
to the parent sound files resulting in the creation of two offspring;
• random mutation is also applied to the offspring;
• all of the offspring sound files are moved into the ‘gene
pool’ and the parents are ‘killed’ in both the mating
and gene pools;
• the process is iterated until a work starts to take shape:
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Participants must bring a laptop (Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi card is needed),
their favorite audio software tools, a web browser and a spirit of experimentation
and exploration. Open source content will be provided courtesy of the
microsound list www.microsound.org.
The workshop language will be english.
Schedule | 15 - 17 November
15th November 10h-18h one hour lunch
breack
16th November: 13h-18h
17th November: 13h-18h
17th November - 19h Public Presentation
of the workshop results and also at 22h concert with Kim Cascone
at ZDB Gallery, in Lisbon.
Target
People who are interested in sound (with or without training) and that
already work with some sound software.
Price
125 Euros
Place
The workshop will take place at Espaço Atmosferas,
Rua da Boavista, 67 in Lisbon, telephone +351 21 321 30 40,
email sonic@atmosferas.net.
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