09.26 - Academic Minute Features MuCoaCo Alum Ching-Hua Chuan

MuCoaCo alum, Ching-Hua Chuan, Assistant Professor of Computing at the University of North Florida speaks on Composing with Computers on The Academic Minute with Lynn Pasquerella, President of Mount Holyoke College.  The Academic Minute features a different professor each day, giving anecdotes and updates on groundbreaking scientific research.

Ching-Hua Chuan's segment aired today on WAMC Public Radio in New York and on more than 60 radio stations across the United States.  Hear it at:
academicminute.org/2014/09/ching-hua-chuan-university-of-north-florida-composing-with-computers

04.26 - Digital Da Vinci Book Chapter on Mimi

Schankler, Isaac, Elaine Chew, and Alexandre R. J. Francois. (2014). Improvising with Digital Auto-scaffolding: How Mimi changes and enhances the creative process. In Newton Lee (ed.): Digital Da Vinci—Computers in Music, 99-125, Springer. ISBN 978-1-4939-0535-5. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-0536-2_5.


Access Options

Individual chapter: SpringerLink Hardcover book: Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk

Abstract: This chapter poses, and proposes some answers to, questions about the origins and nature of creativity when digital media takes an active role in the music-making process. The discussions are centered on François’ Mimi (Multimodal Interaction for Musical Improvisation) system, which enables a musician to seed the computer with musical ideas and then improvise atop re-combinations of these ideas; the system provides the musician with visual foreknowledge of the machine’s intent and review of the interaction. They extend to the different instantiations of, and extensions to, the Mimi system, which are designed with various interaction nuances in mind, and engender new forms of creativity. We review each Mimi version, from the original blue-and-white silhouette display, to the Scriabin-inspired varicolored panels, to the multi-paneled user-directed Mimi4x. In each scenario, we consider the impact of Mimi on the creative process and the resulting performance; specifically, we describe the interaction between a performer, the composer (when this is different from the performer), and the system, analyzing the techniques used to successfully negotiate a performance with Mimi, and the formal musical structures that result from this interaction.


Supplemental material (video):

Analysis of performance with Schankler and Mimi.

04.02 - MuCoaCo alum Ching-Hua Chuan discusses style identification in pop/rock music

MuCoaCo alum Ching-Hua Chuan, now an Assistant Professor of Computing at the University of North Florida, discusses her research on a identifying style in pop/rock music through a multi-modal approach on “UNF On The Record,” a weekly radio show featuring campus life topics and faculty and student research.

To hear the interview, visit the UNF On The Record radio show's streaming site at www.unf.edu/publicrelations/media_relations/news/radio/2014/Style_identification_in_pop_and_rock_music.aspx

To learn more about Ching-Hua's work, visit her website at www.unf.edu/~c.chuan/Site/Home.html

03.15 - Isaac Schankler & co.'s Depression Quest is XYZZY Interactive Fiction Awards Best Implementation Finalist

Depression Quest, an award-winning interactive (non)fiction game about living with depression by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey, and Isaac Schankler, designed to spread awareness about depression, is a Best Implementation finalist for the 2013 XYZZY Awards, the equivalent of Academy or Grammy Awards recognizing extraordinary interactive fiction.

For Depression Quest, Isaac Schankler designed a generative and interactive soundtrack that depends on the player's path through the game. The music includes samples from freesound.org and is inspired by Arvo Pärt, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, David Kanaga.  Click on the square to download Isaac Schankler's soundtrack.

Isaac Schankler is an alum of both the QMUL Music Performance and Expression mini-group at the Centre for Digital Music (visiting artist-in-residence in 2012) and of the USC Music Computation and Cognition Lab (2010-2012), working on and improvising with both Mimi and Mimi4x.