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]

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

Electric Dreams (disquiet0651)

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!

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.

nawak

Druidic random sampling_disquiet0651

for the disquiet junto //

algorithmic bleeps'n'bloops

==

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/

Cascade 3N7G5

[disquiet0651] Cascade 3N7G5

This track is part of Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute? See more at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0651-why-compute/67663/28.

Weekly Beats 2024

Storefront Churches

In response to the recent Disquiet Junto challenge:

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.

An answer could be, that it helps with creativity. 
For this track Randolon sequencer (by Charles E. Platel) plays Glockenspiel and Arctic Swells (Spitfire audio LABS). I added a track created with Havoxicon ( by Johan van Kreij).



Conversation about feelings with a nice robot (disquiet0651).

This is my submission for this week's Disquiet Junto project.

More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at https://disquiet.com/2024/06/20/disquiet-junto-project-0651-why-compute/

Banded Structures [disquiet0651]

mur mur

Browsing through some old files I found a couple of recordings from some live sets in a distant past. Very distant. 2013 to be more precise. This was from a birthday-party for a friend. I remember that evening, it was great! I recorded some parts of the show, this is the intro.

Conversation about feelings with a nice robot (disquiet0651).

Peppermint

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govinda1893

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