Authors:

 Manzolli, Jonatas; Moroni, Artemis; Von Zuben, Fernando; Gudwin, Ricardo

Title:

 VOX POPULI: Evolutionary Computation for Music Evolution

Keywords:

 Evolutionary computation, Algorithmic Composition, Genetic Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Adaptive Systems, Computer Music.
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Abstract:

 The ability to evolve is the most important property of the living-systems. Evolution and learning are the two most fundamental adaptation process and their relationship is very complex. The idea behind evolutionary computation is to do what nature does. At any given moment, a small fraction of the population is exogeneously given opportunities to observe the exact distribution in the group, and take the best response against it.
Evolutionary computation uses a vocabulary borrowed from natural genetics. Individuals are the single elements of a population; quite often these individuals are called also strings or chromosomes. Chromosomes are made of units - genes - arranged in linear succession; every gene controls the inheritance of one or several
characters. Genes of certain characters are located at certain places of the chromosome, which are called loci (string positions). Any character of individuals can manifest itself differently; the gene is said to be in several states, called alleles (feature values).
Here, we apply Evolutionary Computation to Algorithm Composition. The individuals of the population are defined as groups of four voices: soprano, contralto, tenor and bass, or choirs; and they are potential solutions for a selection process. Each choir is evaluated under three criteria: melody, harmony and octave. The composition of these three criteria defines the fitness of a group to the selection function applied.
The selection function applied to a population returns the "best individual", or "best choir", according to the aspects mentioned. A genetic cycle is continuously happening, creating new individuals from the old ones and looking for the best.
When a new group is selected, it is played, as MIDI notes - or sung, as a choir. The duration of the genetic cycle determines the rhythm of the evolution. A choir is played, or sung, until the best one of the next cycle is selected. The resulting system, VOX POPULI, allows to the user to modify the fitness function parameters, maybe emulating catastrophes from Nature changing conditions for surviving. God?
The Presentation The developed system may be presented in a PC multimedia equipment. People may interact with it. It is self contained, and may be included in a CDROM.
Manzolli, Jonatas Jonatas@nics.unicamp.br UNICAMP Composer and researcher who works with
Algorithmic Composition and Sound Synthesis. He had his PhD degree in Music Composition (1993)
at the University of Nottingham, England. He also studied Computer Music at the Institute of Sonology, The Netherlands (1991-92). His master degree in Applied Mathematics (1989), Bachelors of Music (1988) and Bachelors of Mathematics (1984) were at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil.
Coming back to Brazil in 1993, he has been creating an interdisciplinary research group on Computer
Music at the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Studies (NICS-UNICAMP). His works are related to
instrumental, electronic music and interactive pieces for dance. His studies focus the relationship
between human gestures and sounds, development of software and hardware for real time
composition/performance applications. He also created the Gesture Interface Lab (LIGA) at NICS
(1996) with that objective.This year he has presented, with Artemis Moroni and Christiane Matallo the
multimedia performance AtoContAto, where a tap dancer produced music with an electronic tap shoe.
This work was showed in the Mostra PETROBRAS de Realidade Virtual, Rio de Janeiro, 3 - 6 Jun, and in ACM Multimedia, 12 - 16 Sep., Bristol, England.
Moroni, Artemis Artemis@ia.cti.br CTI - Campinas She is a researcher in Computer Graphics at CTI ,
Centro Tecnológico para lnformática (Technological Center for lnformatics), a Brazilian federal research
center in Campinas, São Paulo. Her master degree in Computer Science and Bachelors Computer
Science were at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil. She has acted in the areas of
Computer Graphics and Art & Technology since 1988, having participated of in several international
events on Computer Art: The 20th, International Biennial of São Paulo, in 1989; The 21st International
Biennial of São Paulo, 1991; the ISEA 93 - International Symposium on Electronic Arts, Minneapolis,
Minnesotta, USA; ISEA'94, in Helsinki, Finland; Graphicom'95, St. Petersburg, Russia. In 95 and 97
she was President of the Art Committee of SIBGRAPI'95, the Brazilian Symposium of Computer
Graphics and Image Processing. This year she has presented, with Jônatas Manzolli and Christiane
Matallo the multimedia performance AtoContAto, where a tap dancer produced music with an
electronic tap shoe. This work was showed in the Mostra PETROBRAS de Realidade Virtual, Rio de
Janeiro, 3 - 6 Jun, and in ACM Multimedia, 12 - 16 Sep., Bristol, England.
Von Zuben, Fernando vonzuben@dca.fee.unicamp.br DCA-FEEC-UNICAMP
Prof. Von Zuben received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1991, the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1993 and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1996, all of them from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of Campinas - Brazil. Since Jan/1997 he is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of Campinas - Brazil. His main topics of research are Artificial neural networks, Computational intelligence, Dynamic system identification and control, Multivariate data analysis and Nonlinear optimization.
Gudwin, Ricardo gudwin@dca.fee.unicamp.br DCA-FEEC-UNICAMP
Prof. Gudwin was born in Campinas, Brazil, in 1967. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical
Engineering in 1989, the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1992 and the Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering in 1996, all of them from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State
University of Campinas - Brazil. Since Jan/1997 he is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of Campinas - Brazil. His earlier research interests include fuzzy systems, neural networks and evolutionary computation. His current research interests include the study of intelligence and intelligent systems, intelligent agents, semiotics and computational semiotics. He is currently working on a book on Computational Semiotics. Prof. Gudwin is a member of IEEE, the Computer Society and the System, Man and Cybernetics Society.