Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute?
The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis.

This project is the first of three that are being done over the course of as many months in collaboration with the 2024 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 4 through 8 (details at musikfestivalbern.ch). We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who manages the festival’s educational activities. This year is the sixth in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern. 

This week’s prompt was proposed by George E. Lewis, musician, music theorist, music professor at Columbia University, and artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Lewis is the composer-in-residence at this year’s Musikfestival Bern. 

Lewis asks, “Why do we want our computers to improvise?”

This week’s project: record a piece of music that responds in some way to Lewis’ question.

For background, this week’s prompt question is the title of an article that Lewis contributed in 2018 to the book The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music.

. . .

Deadline: Monday, June 24, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

. . .

More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at https://disquiet.com/0651/

The cover image for this project uses a photo by Ioan Sameli, thanks to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; it’s been cropped and text has been added to it.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_8742_153056995.jpg

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute?

Humans create tools to make tasks easier. When the tool no longer works as intended, we discard or repurpose it for another utility. Our relationship with technology is like a transactional ouroboros, our behaviors influenced by human imperfections that machines were designed to eliminate. 

Computers distort the human-tool relationship, possibly due to their ephemerality in form factor and intended purpose. In merely a few decades, a machine that once encompassed an entire tabletop now rests comfortably in a jacket pocket. Tasks that once required several specialized instruments now reside in a single device. Such is the nature of our digital existence. 

(If there were a moment in this narrative to insert a casual reference to AI, here it is).

We want our computers to improvise because humankind is always improvising, and we need our tools to respond to our shifting priorities. “Everything is always turning into something else,” wrote the poet Kenneth Koch. “As we’re sitting here talking, monkeys are jumping around in the trees, and waves are going across the Hudson, and new poets are being born, and covers are coming off books … I mean, all sorts of things are going on.”

For this piece, Suss Müsik interpreted form and structure through improvisational reconstitution. Handmade electronic devices, built from discarded 1990’s computer hardware and a hacked Glitch Storm bitmap sequencer, manipulated acoustic timbres from plucked cellos to create unpredictable looping patterns. These were iteratively refactored until the tonic and non-tonic diffused, suggesting a "broken" musicality that transgresses common assumptions of sonic beauty.

The piece is titled Ultracrepidarians, a word to describe a group of people who express strong opinions about something beyond their expertise.

More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at https://disquiet.com/0651/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Disquiet Junto Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

Disquiet Junto Discussion: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0651-why-compute/67663

Ultracrepidarians [Disquiet 0651]

a motorola duet

Feature-Reel here: www.instagram.com/reel/C9GOZJ_ABse/

There is a certain beauty in additive synthesis. I can compute it with my early-8-Bit-Synthesizer, powered by an 68000 Motorola.

Working from zero frequency, there is an early starting point, when the algorithm takes over the numbers, the frequencies and delivers a sonic representation of their calculations. 

To us, there seems to be life in this. Especially, when imagining, that this only sound, could be calculated one time.

So, I did the same as the Fairlight and took the first approach of my improvised playing. I reduced the takes to only 1 – no retakes, no overdubs, no midi.

A kind of a duet concerning both singular attempts and open outcomes.

Due to computing times of about 5 seconds in between the – nearly not hearable – changes of sound, I had to place 2 little cuts.

Why compute? Maybe because it opens an untold gate to a special resonance and understanding a little about ourselves.

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More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute? – Disquiet

a motorola impromptu (disquiet0651)

An electronic composition created in Pure Data using processes which include elements of indeterminacy and improvisation.

More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute? – Disquiet

The cover image for this project uses a photo by Ioan Sameli, thanks to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; it’s been cropped and text has been added to it.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_8742_153056995.jpg

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Chance and Choice (disquiet0651)

started by watching the media labs perspective with george lewis
 - modular synthesiser as a digital-analog electronic computer - improvisation as interactive system that can generate output without other input, but can respond to input when it is present 
- use envelope follower and pitch detection to create various CV/gate outputs to influence parameters of a free running patch (two voices) including bursts triggered by threshold gate on input, timing of the patch from deriving clock speed. some granular processing on input
- cheap kalimba as input - couldn't find a contact mic so hooked up my tascam into microphone into disting's B3 for env/pitch info

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More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute? – Disquiet

The cover image for this project uses a photo by Ioan Sameli, thanks to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; it’s been cropped and text has been added to it.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_8742_153056995.jpg 1

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

disquiet0651 - sierra madre (improvisation for kalimba and modular synthesiser)

More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at https://disquiet.com/0651/

“Why do we want our computers to improvise?” My answer: because it’s a fun way to enhance creativity, allow playful interaction and create a source of the unknown to challenge you.

I tried to create something in this spirit using the fabulous Krill for Norns with various Synths.

Disquiet0651 - Because It’s Fun!

The 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute?
The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis
Disquiet Junto Project 0651 – https://disquiet.com/0651/

The cover image for this project uses a photo by Ioan Sameli, thanks to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; it’s been cropped and text has been added to it.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_8742_153056995.jpg

即興 - Improvisation #1 [Disquiet0651]

mikey_a is an ambient and soundscape artist living in Melbourne, Australia.
Though now producing mainly in the box with a mix of VST and field recordings he still likes to occasionally crank out some of the physical treasures he's owned since the '80s: a Korg MonoPoly, a Roland TR-606, TB-303, S-10 and D-110 along with a TEAC 3440 reel-to-reel.
He is a frequent contributor to the Naviar Records' Haiku Challenge and Disquiet Junto projects.