Conclusion and Future Research
A full set of conclusions will be presented in my defence’s lecture performance. Nevertheless, I will layout several findings, based on the performed research and the results of the case studies.
Throughout this paper I proposed a performance strategy for computer musicians which has the capacity to add to a notion of artistry involved in electronics performance. Through careful selection of the agents that constitute the computer musician’s instrument, a consolidation was suggested. While selecting these agents, affordances and constraints regarding mapping, gesture, expression, synchronicity and communication (performer-instrument and performer-audience communication) were taken into account. Case studies revealed that the proposed consolidation not only presents an adequate and versatile performance setup, capable of complex mapping strategies and at the same time providing the performer with a transparent reflection of software parameters, but also a visual platform, capable of visually communicating performance actions to the audience.
The orientation of the luminous control platform towards the audience implies a change from an instrumental to a multimedial performance environment. This paradigm shift presented the option of connecting modes of multimedia to both gesture and audio produced by the performer, which led to an original approach in optimising audience understanding of an electronics performance. In this regard, I created MGCVM, a collection of modules for constructing custom performance interfaces for monome grids in Max, which allows for linking performance gestures to visual animations. By ensuring a certain degree of synchronicity between the animations and the music produced by the performer, another step towards a better audience understanding of an electronics performance was taken.
In all this, the compositional idiom and performance concept in which the computer musician operates, proved to play an important role, as mapping strategy, gestural behaviour, communication, visualisation and staging are very much influenced by it. In other words, the affordances and constraints on both instrumental and communicative level are dictated by compositional aesthetics. Nevertheless, the computer musician is presented with a viable, original performance solution, capable of communicating his or her artistry to the audience.
Since the presented solutions in this research project are still in an early stage of development, in future research I would like to elaborate on this topic of internal visualisation with regard to performer-audience communication. While MGCVM holds a lot of potential, presently it only incorporates visual animations that apply to my own compositional aesthetics. By extending the visualisation modules, MGCVM could present a feasible solution for computer musicians, operating with different compositional aesthetics in mind, as well.
A full set of conclusions will be presented in my defence’s lecture performance. Nevertheless, I will layout several findings, based on the performed research and the results of the case studies.
Throughout this paper I proposed a performance strategy for computer musicians which has the capacity to add to a notion of artistry involved in electronics performance. Through careful selection of the agents that constitute the computer musician’s instrument, a consolidation was suggested. While selecting these agents, affordances and constraints regarding mapping, gesture, expression, synchronicity and communication (performer-instrument and performer-audience communication) were taken into account. Case studies revealed that the proposed consolidation not only presents an adequate and versatile performance setup, capable of complex mapping strategies and at the same time providing the performer with a transparent reflection of software parameters, but also a visual platform, capable of visually communicating performance actions to the audience.
The orientation of the luminous control platform towards the audience implies a change from an instrumental to a multimedial performance environment. This paradigm shift presented the option of connecting modes of multimedia to both gesture and audio produced by the performer, which led to an original approach in optimising audience understanding of an electronics performance. In this regard, I created MGCVM, a collection of modules for constructing custom performance interfaces for monome grids in Max, which allows for linking performance gestures to visual animations. By ensuring a certain degree of synchronicity between the animations and the music produced by the performer, another step towards a better audience understanding of an electronics performance was taken.
In all this, the compositional idiom and performance concept in which the computer musician operates, proved to play an important role, as mapping strategy, gestural behaviour, communication, visualisation and staging are very much influenced by it. In other words, the affordances and constraints on both instrumental and communicative level are dictated by compositional aesthetics. Nevertheless, the computer musician is presented with a viable, original performance solution, capable of communicating his or her artistry to the audience.
Since the presented solutions in this research project are still in an early stage of development, in future research I would like to elaborate on this topic of internal visualisation with regard to performer-audience communication. While MGCVM holds a lot of potential, presently it only incorporates visual animations that apply to my own compositional aesthetics. By extending the visualisation modules, MGCVM could present a feasible solution for computer musicians, operating with different compositional aesthetics in mind, as well.
- performer-instrument as well as performer/instrument-audience communication.