Process-based composition strategies are equally present in Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing. This is the case, for example, of the scene in which we depict how the algorithm controls and punishes the workers after the death of Captain Swing[71]. This is represented as a series of “musical tasks”, short melodic motifs based on the musical material of the piece[72], that need to be performed relentlessly following the snaps of Alexis the Scanner[73]. These motifs are designed in response to a text written imitating an algorithmic language (Figure 27). This text is informed by qualitative data from the interviews, generating sentences such as “loo time is equal to zero”, or “else efficiency must be equal to efficiency plus one” by mixing the algorithmic language with the workers’ complaints. The chorus will sing these words, whereas the folk band will just play the musical motif, or just play its rhythmic component in the case of the percussion (Example #22).
The performance instructions are simple but repetitive (as working as a picker or packer in a fulfilment centre): each performer starts playing or singing one of the “musical tasks” when Alexis snaps directly at the person. Each motif is repeated as many times as the performer wants before jumping to a different “musical task”, in any order. The motifs must be performed fully as written, with the idea of completing a task. This process is repeated relentlessly until the next snap of Alexis the Scanner at a performer, marking them to stop. When all performers have been stopped, the scene finishes[74].
The result of this composition resembles a sort of factory-assembly-line version of Terry Riley’s minimalist work In C (1964). The performers, however, in comparison, are deprived of most of the freedom Riley gives in his score, especially the agency he gives to move forward in the piece. In this case, this agency does not exist as the performers jump between fragments relentlessly until the character of Alexis the Scanner marks the end of their “shift”. Also, instead of the gradual morphing of musical fragments achieved in Riley’s work, in this case we have a direct layering of different tasks happening simultaneously, akin to the reality of a factory (or a fulfilment centre in this case).
Example #22
Representation of the algorithm’s control over the workers by a process: the relentless playing and repetition of different motifs associated in the piece to Amazon and the workers. The scene is introduced and ended by a sung short line describing how the algorithm continuously analyses the workers’ performance.