NetWorks is a music-generating system, and body of music, based on network theory, complex systems science and the Honing theory of creativity. 

Sequitur is a test of the new NetWorks algorithm. In all previous versions of NetWorks, four node-types, representing the basic attributes of a “note” (pitch, loudness, duration, and entry delay) were used. The new algorithm allows for an arbitrary number of the node-types that can be mapped onto any aspect of sound synthesis. 

Sequitur has four interacting “voices” or output streams. Each steam was generated using 8 node-types: four for the basic note attributes, and four others that control various parameters of a physical modelling synthesizer (Chromophone) which affect the timbral characteristics and envelope of the notes (sonic events). 

The rhythmic and pitch relationships of Sequitur were kept relatively simple so the ear can more easily focus on the more fine-grained changes within each sonic event and the unfolding patterns of relationships between events.

The central feature of NetWorks is the communal exchange of information between node-types that allows. for example, the pitch of one note to affect its own next pitch, as well as the duration, velocity, and timbral characteristics of other sonics events. 

The mind has evolved to find patterns in the world. The deterministic, interconnected patterns that NetWorks can generate, provides a rich tapestry of note-attribute relationships for the mind to parse. 

Headphone listening is recommended.

Sequitur

“Two to Go” is the fourteenth piece from my release “NetWorks 8: Other Times": https://shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-8-other-times

NetWorks (NW) is a music-generating system, and body of music, based on network theory, complex systems science and the Honing theory of creativity. NW has been designed to explore network architectures and rules of information exchange and transformation in order to generate musical patterns that range from orderly to chaotic. When tuned to the ‘edge of chaos,’ that is, balanced between repetition and variety, NW tends to generate patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development.

“Two to Go” has four interacting “voices” or output streams. Each steam was generated using 8 node-types: four for the basic note attributes (pitch, loudness, duration, and entry delay) and four others that control various parameters of physical modelling synthesizers which affect the timbral characteristics and envelope of the notes (sonic events). 

The rhythmic and pitch relationships of “Two to Go” were kept relatively simple so the ear can more easily focus on the more fine-grained changes within each sonic event and the relationships of these changes within the unfolding pattern of events.

The central feature of NetWorks is the exchange of information between node-types that allows, for example, the pitch of one note to affect its own next pitch, as well as the duration, velocity, and timbral characteristics of other sonics events. Headphone listening is recommended.

Other Times

Two to Go

Two To Go

Please enjoy “Incantation II,” the seventh piece from my new album “NetWorks 11: Unfamiliar Order.” 

NetWorks is a music-generating algorithm that seeks to tap into the ceaseless creativity, and organic coherence, found in nature through fine-tuning the connectivity of networks, which channels how information flows through them, and the rules that modify the information as it interacts via their nodes.

Constraints on the connections and interactions between the parts of systems are central to their coherence. Alicia Juarrero in her book, Context Changes Everything writes: “Coherence-making by constraints takes place in physical and biological complex systems small and large, from Bénard cells to human organizations and institutions, from family units to entire cultures. Entities and events in economic and ecosystems are defined by such covarying relations generated by enabling constraints.”

“Incantation II” consists of eight interacting voices. Voices can interact such that, for example, the depth of vibrato performed by one voice can influence the timbral characteristics and movement through 3D (ambisonic) space of a note played by another voice.

Headphone listening is recommended as the piece was mixed using ambisonic techniques.

Unfamiliar Order

Incantations II

Incantation II

Spindrift is the 3rd track from NetWorks 3: Thresholds, the entire album can be heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-3-thresholds.

Constraints on the connections and interactions between the entities of systems are central to what defines them. This is true of the interactions between the entities that make up matter, cells, societies, ecosystems, planetary systems and so on. It is also true for games and art. Constraints are what define, and how we recognize, musical genres and are key in the process of creation.

“Spindrift” is an example of the diverse, self-organizing musical forms that information sharing over simple networks can produce. NetWorks represents six years of programming and tuning a network of 64 nodes that share music performance data including pitch, duration, velocity, and entry delay (entry delays result in rhythmic patterns, motives and larger scale structures such as phrases and sections). Articulations such as legato, staccato, etc., as well as pedalling and various synthesis parameters are also often determined by the network.

NetWorks has been “tuned” to generate patterns at "the edge of chaos,” that is, balanced between variety and harmony (through repetition, for example). Although not explicitly programmed, one can often hear motives that repeat, vary, develop into melodies, diverge and return, all through the simple interactions between nodes. If constraints define genre, NetWorks is a search for new genres and cross-genres. To modify a phrase of Christopher Langton’s (a pioneer in the field of Artificial Life), NetWorks is the study of “music-as-it-could-be.”

The approach taken to mapping the patterns to sound is to ensure their clarity, not to obfuscate them by complex synthetic textures or other effects readily available during mixing, for example by applying an echo effect. No notes were harmed in the mixing of these pieces! Since the music of NetWorks is self-organizing, sampled instruments were often chosen to include the “human touch.”

The NetWorks network of 64 nodes is infinitesimally minuscule compared to natural networks, and six years of “tuning” and exploring some of its possible architectures and their musical potential is hardly a beginning. The sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by the network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such small beginnings and such simple models of interaction.

"Thresholds" is good for focused listening, ambience, a background for work, mediating and falling asleep. A decent pair of headphones is recommended for focused listening.

NetWorks 3: Thresholds

Spindrift

Deviations From The Average IV is the 4th track from NetWorks 3: Thresholds, the entire album can be heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-3-thresholds.

NetWorks is a music-generating (MIDI-data-generating) program and a body of work based on artificial-life, complex adaptive systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity. NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours.

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (L. Gabora, in press).

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange.

Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself.

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by the network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple interactive models. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing.

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

This was a preliminary mix. The final mix is available on Bandcamp: https://shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-3-thresholds

Album artwork evolved using SBart4 by Unemi Tatsuo.

Deviations From The Average IV

The Lords of Xibalba is the 11th track from NetWorks 4: Planet of Lost B​-​Movie Soundtracks and Other Anomalies, the entire album can be purchased on Bandcamp: https://shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-4-planet-of-lost-b-movie-soundtracks-and-other-anomalies

Three Pieces for Piano and Orchestra, No 2. 
III: The Lords of Xibalba

NetWorks is a music-generating program  based on complex adaptive systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity. NetWorks 4: Planet of Lost B-Movie Soundtracks and Other Anomalies uses the rich repertoire of the symphony orchestra to provide associations and references with which to compare the creative output of NetWorks. In judging the musicality of NetWorks’ output, I only ask the listener to imagine the expressive depth and nuance human performance could bring to the pieces presented.

Headphone listening is recommended. This is a preliminary mix. The final mix will be available on Bandcamp.

NetWorks 4: Planet of Lost B-Movie Soundtracks and Other Anomalies

The Lords of Xibalba

Fredkin's Folly is the 1st track from NetWorks 5: In silico, the entire album can be heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-5-in-silico.

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours. 

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006). 

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself. 

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing. 

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

Album artwork evolved using SBart4 by Unemi Tatsuo.

NetWorks 5: In Silico

Fredkin's Folly

Dirty Ears is the 2nd track from Networks 5: In silico, the entire album can be  heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-5-in-silico.

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours. 

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006). 

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself. 

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing. 

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

Album artwork evolved using SBart4 by Unemi Tatsuo.

NetWorks 5: In silico

Dirty Ears

Where All Love Ends is the 5th track from NetWorks 5: In silico, the entire album can be heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-5-in-silico.

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours. 

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006). 

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself. 

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing. 

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

Album artwork evolved using SBart4 by Unemi Tatsuo.

Where All Love Ends

The Forgotten Now is the 6th track from NetWorks 5: In silico, the entire album can be heard on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-5-in-silico.

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours. 

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006). 

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself. 

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing. 

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

Album artwork evolved using SBart4 by Unemi Tatsuo.

The Forgotten Now

Counterpointless is the 7th track from NetWorks 6: Music From a Farther Room. The entire album can be heard on Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, Deezer, etc., or purchased on Bandcamp: https://shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/networks-6-music-from-a-farther-room

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours.

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006).

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself.

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing.

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

NetWorks 6: Music From a Farther Room

Counterpointless

Open World is the 12th track from NetWorks 6: Music From a Farther Room. The entire album can be heard on Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, Deezer, etc., or purchased on Bandcamp: shawnbell.bandcamp.com/album/network…-farther-room

NetWorks is a music-generating system, and a body of work, based on artificial-life, complex systems research and the Honing Theory of creativity (Gabora 2010). NetWorks uses a hierarchical, scale-free network to generate music that can range from orderly to chaotic. At the ‘edge of chaos’ it generates patterns that exhibit emergent complexity through coherent musical development at low, mid and high levels of musical organization, and often suggests a sense of direction through goal seeking behaviours.

Emergence, in the NetWorks program, is achieved, not through Darwinian evolutionary processes, but through a far older form of evolution called communal exchange. “There is extensive evidence that for the first several million years of its existence life on earth evolved through communal exchange of components amongst self-organizing autocatalytic protocells, prior to establishment of a genetic code, and only once a RNA-based self-assembly code was in place did life evolve through natural selection. … the last century’s emphasis on natural selection in evolutionary theory is not warranted by current research; even today, variation-selection is, quantitatively at least, not the dominant evolutionary process.” (Gabora 2006).

There are no selective processes (fitness functions) within NetWorks, so if an output stream is perceived to “evolve” it can then be said to originate solely through communal exchange. Selective processes occur only between the interaction of the musician-programmer and the NetWorks program, when the musician-programmer (1) generates and evaluates network architectures, rule-sets and mappings, (2) orchestrates, mixes, and masters the most aesthetically pleasing instances of these outputs and (3) tweaks and expands the program itself.

In general, the sounds chosen to manifest the musical patterns discovered by a network attempt to reflect the mystery and wonder that virtually unlimited diversity can come from such simple models of complexity. When mapping patterns to sound, an effort is made to preserve the integrity of the patterns rather than obfuscate them with complex synthetic textures or other effects that are readily available during mixing.

Since the MIDI data of NetWorks is computer-generated, sampled acoustic instruments are often used to give the music a “human feel”, and to allow the listener to relate and compare the self-organizing patterns to known genres.

Headphone listening is recommended.

NetWorks 6: Music from a Farther Room

Open World

Composer, educator and interactive media artist and professional dedicated to creativity and multidisciplinary collaboration. Interested in constructionist approaches to new media education and how interactive technologies and complexity theory enhance and expand the creative process in the traditional arts, new media and game design.

Developed NetWorks, a body of musical work as well as an interactive music-generating algorithm based on scale-free networks. Developer of ~zomes, a sound synthesizer based on a-life models. 

Interest in metacreation dates back to Voices From The Edge of Chaos (1998), a CD of emergent, self–organizing computer music. Received a FACTOR international distribution grant and was subsequently awarded a residency at Lovebytes Labs in Sheffield, England (1999), to produce a piece for Digital Space CD and CD ROM of “innovative new work using digital sound and multimedia”.

Zomes

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