Program Note for Advice from a Caterpillar

This brief piece draws from 8 years of experiments in AI over a time when it has gone from making scratchy noises and chirps to fully generative music. It's been a remarkable transition, but the direction that it has gone is not necessarily useful.  
	“What do you mean by that?” 
The latest AI generates convincing voices, instruments and music based on things that already exist. When you listen to this piece, you may find, as I did, that the most interesting music comes from the "failed" projects from 6-8 years ago. It turns out artificial creativity is not the same as artificial intelligence.

_Advice from a Caterpillar_ comes in many segments, but the first and most important is to know the answer to the existential question, "Who are you?" If we are to have a creative Artificial Intelligence it will eventually have to answer this question as well, and to this I say, "Explain yourself!"

JESSE ALLISON

Advice from a Caterpillar

Gulf killifish, Fundulus grandis, are small fish that fill the estuaries of Louisiana. In fact, they are everywhere that the rivers meet the seas along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, from Mexico to Nova Scotia. As such, these fish can be used as biosensors providing indicators of toxicity.  

In collaboration with the research lab of Benjamin Dubansky at LSU, killifish data has been sampled and gone through a process of sonification and musification to create this work. Sonification provides a direct path from data to audio to hear the dynamics of the killifish cardiovascular system. The data is also put through a number of analytical processes which then map onto musical parameters in a process of musification. This work blends both approaches allowing us to musically explore these tiny yet significant animals. In the words of Dr. Dubansky, they are, "an army of sensitive biosensors, guarding our coasts from incoming and domestic chemical threats. Killifish act as beacons for environmental injustice and public health disparity."

In vivo in silico: Fundulus Grandis

Nunc Dimitis by Jesse Allison performed by the St. Alban's Chapel Choir in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Nunc Dimitis

Experimental improvisation by the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana using the Klecksographie laptop instrument developed by Jesse Allison. This performance was of the theme: Waves

Klexographie – Waves

Experimental improvisation by the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana in 2017 using the Klecksographie laptop instrument developed by Jesse Allison. This performance was of the theme: Resonant Chambers

Klexographie – Resonant Chambers

A lovely little piece evoking the swirling of leaves in the Autumn. 

Autumn Lullaby

This piece grows from source recordings of irrigation recorded at the family farm where I grew up in Washington. This is an acousmatic exploration of the sounds and theme of sustenance.

Sustenance

A live performance of Vessel of Meditation at the International Computer Music Conference in 2011. 

Vessel of Meditation

ours was a fleeting romance: brief, short, short-lived, quick, momentary, cursory, transient, ephemeral, fugitive, passing, transitory

allisonic

Pinned to spotlight

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