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Interactive Drawing as Active Notation for Digital Music Performance


Michael Lukaszuk, Umeå University

 

 

The way in which new music technologies have blurred traditional roles in music dissemination is reflected in the sense of overlap between how sounds are transcribed and played for digital instruments. During the 20th and 21st centuries, the development of new music notation practices for experimental music increasingly leveraged visual media as a strategy for accessing new kinds of sounds, and for incorporating the capabilities of found objects and electronic/digital devices as integral parts of a performance. This paper presents perspectives on the design and use of new music technologies that incorporate interactive drawing and algorithmically generated visuals to create a form of notation for cross-disciplinary improvisation. It presents research-creation as a distinct methodology in which theoretical, technical and creative elements of the project occur together. By acknowledging the work of cultural theorists such as Stuart Hall, who writes about “…the intertextuality of texts in their institutional positions, of texts as sources of power, of textuality as a site of representation and resistance…,” this research methodology is used to acknowledge the digital musical instrument as a text in and of itself, and a place to intervene upon reductive notational practices that are still used in digital music production. In addition to artistic practice, this paper discusses the use of computer vision tools from the OpenCV library, which incorporate artificial intelligence for image recognition and analysis. These are used within the multimedia patching software, Max, to create mappings between audio and visual materials. Computer vision has been used to improve outcomes in healthcare and as a tool for various forms of surveillance, but this project seeks to explore how the pairing of AI and notational practice can connect different kinds of artistic practice and highlight the unique capabilities of new musical instruments. By drawing symbols and manipulating shapes, using a tablet or mobile device can assert a sense of instrumentality for musical objects that use sensors and screens instead of keys, strings or valves. What happens when we bring notation into the immediate reality of playing computer-generated sounds? How can these digital musical instruments be acknowledged as interdisciplinary objects that reach out beyond the music technology field?

 

Keywords: audio-visual, improvisation, music technology, notation, interactive drawing


Biography
Michael Lukaszuk is an artist and researcher with interests in experimental music and technology. His creative work focuses on computer-generated music, improvisation and audio-visual art. His current research practice explores taxonomies and performance practices for new musical instruments, and how such digital tools act as a microcosm for broader issues with algorithmic media in culture. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University (Canada). He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in New Media Art at Umeå University.