Using code as a medium to construct a collaborative musical score by artists with differing levels of coding literacy.

This is an auto-ethnographic study that presents practice-based research from a field of enquiry, which could broadly be described as ‘collaborative composition’. The research derives it’s content from the experience of working on Breath Pieces, a dance performance devised by Rosanna Irvine, which took place at Tramway, Glasgow in the summer of 2018. Rosanna was responsible for the concept and choreography for the piece and I was asked to provide a generative sound/music composition. I am based in London, Rosanna in Scotland and there was no opportunity to meet during the development of the piece. This presentation describes the challenge of devising a method of working, which resulted in generative musical content that could be manipulated and adjusted during the experimental and devising phases of the piece, without the composer being present.

Despite the fact that Rosanna had very little experience of computer programming, the most cost effective and simplest approach to maintaining a creative workflow between each location, was to use a coding environment. This presentation describes the strategy that evolved to allow us to traverse the geographical and experiential distance between us.

The medium I chose to use was the live coding environment Sonic Pi, because of the ease with which a non-coder could learn the user interface and because the coding environment was designed for 'just in time’ or 'conversational’ programming which allows code to be extended or manipulated and then released into the performance without any break in the audio (live coding). I found Rosanna’s creative process to be very organic and spontaneous, and the requirements of the score therefore evolved over time, requiring an iterative approach to the composition. Being a text-based medium meant that any change in requirements, resulting from our videoconferences and online discussions, could be simply and quickly reflected in an adjustment to the code sent by email.

When the performers became involved and the piece went into formal rehearsals our process necessitated us using a reduced parameter space within the coding environment, to allow the manipulation of negotiated characteristics of the score during rehearsal, without requiring prior knowledge of the programming language. We developed data structures at the head of the code, which allowed for a safe experimental parameter space for Rosanna to explore the generative processes within the score/code and adjust predetermined characteristics of the piece, which had evolved from our conversations. The audio material used in the score was derived from field recordings relating to the theme of ‘breath’, which was integral to the concept of the piece. Much of the functionality within the piece was based around the manipulation of a number of bespoke sample libraries. In each section of the piece, which lasted for 45mins, the treatments varied significantly. Therefore, many of the discussion that took place between us focused on the development of nomenclature, which reflected important aesthetic considerations and which I would then try to codified in the parameter space.

The coding environment in this context extended beyond the use of technology purely as a compositional tool, by providing a medium for negotiation and a tool to facilitate the interpretation of semantics. It allowed material to be developed in such a way that the affordances of complex musical processes could be expressed to, and manipulated by, a co-creator using a semantically meaningful interface but without the need for specialist technical knowledge. This presentation will describe not just the resultant algorithmic structure of the composition but also the human interaction, which drove the creative process.

Having reflected on this experience, a number of themes have emerged, which relate to current discourse around the democratisation of technology, engaging with complexity through the affordances of a reduced parameter space and some aspects of semantic audio. The approach presented here differs from the normal relationship between an artist and an app developer, in that the underlying functionality is co-designed and the interface is a meaningful reflection of the semantics that relate to the specific aesthetic of the piece.

Within the arts there is often a form of cultural mystique, which surrounds the practice of computer programming that can form an exclusion zone for artists who have not acquired the requisite vernacular to engage in discourse related this field of endeavour. This presentation suggests a model of collaboration that uses code as a means of formalising mutual understanding and could potentially be applied to any collaborative context to bridge a gap in coding literacy between the collaborators.