The idea at the core of my research states that a linear work of music cannot respond to the changes or "shifts of state" within an interactive environment. Conceptual gaps exist where the incompatibility of linear music in a non-linear environment goes unrecognized. The linear musical form is fixed in the structure of its "A-to-B-ness," a beginning, middle, and an end. When there is uncertainty regarding the formation of an experience with regard to its temporal markers, there is an opportunity to write music that acknowledges and can respond to its transience.
In other genres, listeners sometimes describe musical transience as "chaos." The perception of musical chaos is however, completely subjective. When the listener is unable to make sense of an organization of sounds it can be perceived as chaotic and is labeled as "bad" or "hard to deal with." In my work, chaos is transformed into coherence through a player' or participant's direct involvement with the source of the chaos. My position is that when one is directly engaged in the "chaos," or is in some way the source of the "chaos," there is no chaos.
Because participants are connected with the production of music via their interactions, they are keenly aware of the changes in their sonic environment. They help to shape a "becoming of music" while engaged in interaction. Recognition of change ("becoming") would be apparent from any point-of-view, but the interpretation of that change would be different from multiple points-of-view. This demonstrates a separation from the cause-and-effect model in the conventional understanding of interactivity. In the composition-instrument framework I propose, a generative system dismantles all traces of cause-and-effect because the "effect" will always manifest uniquely through different sounds and different sound contexts.
In conventional games and similar environments of interaction, an "effect" is akin to film scoring, where there is an intended connection between what is seen and what is heard. In my model,
meaning (what is gleaned through a cause-effect relationship) is emergent, and is contingent on the output of the generative system relative both to interactions and the environment for interaction. But is an interaction a cause or an effect? It is a difficult question to answer because regardless of whether someone is in the process of initiating or responding, the system will feel the perturbation and its elements will be symmetrically triggered.
In the whole of my interaction model, the composition-instrument concept offers an emergent frame for understanding that ultimately leads to interpretation. This is not the "translation" kind of interpretation, but the type of interpretation that allows for the formation of insight. In my case, this means learning more about the nature of an environment through the potential of relationships within that environment—sounds relating to each other as music, and sounds relating to the environment where the interaction takes place.
Our session in São Paulo has helped affirm confidence in the overall direction and focus of my research. It has also raised questions where there are ambiguities in the details of my artistic work. This will be my focus in the months to come. In April I will present a more complete picture of the work to form the practice-based component of my thesis.
