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Björk and Microsoft use AI to create music that changes with the sky
Björk is no stranger to using technology to express her music in more inventive ways, but now she's using it to shape the music itself in unexpected forms. The Icelandic star is using Microsoft AI as part of Kórsafn ("choral archives"), a non-stop composition playing in the lobby of the Sister City hotel in New York City. The project plays selections from Björk's many choral arrangements (including new ones composed by the Hamrahlid Choir) based on what the AI sees in the sky through a rooftop camera. It'll react based on different cloud types, the behavior of birds, passing aircraft and even barometric pressure. Long-term weather trends will gradually alter the piece, too.
Otomata sequencer creates generative music for the melodically challenged (video)
It won't bring you the success or adoration that Brian Eno's enjoyed, but the Otomata sequencer could have you making noise like the Roxy Music alum in seconds. Way back in 1996, Eno espoused the idea of generative music, which is a non-repetitive form of music created, in this case, anyway, by a piece of software. Otomata takes that idea and puts it to use in a cellular automaton, consisting of a simple grid of cells in different states. With Otomata, each selected cell has four states: up, down, left, and right. When activated, the cells move in the direction of their given state, and when they encounter an obstacle, like a wall, a pitched sound is created. After each collision, the cells turn around and head in the opposite direction until they hit another obstacle, and the process continues indefinitely. The result is a chaotic but somehow lulling symphony of electronic sounds, a la Mr. Eno, that anyone with a mouse can muster. Head on past the break to see for yourself.
Alex Dodge's 'Generative' depicts the wearable sci-fi tech of your dreams, literally
In an upcoming gallery show dubbed Generative, artist Alex Dodge (in collaboration with tech start-up called... Generative) will be sucking you into an awesome near-future where shoes generate electricity, the "Sleep Talker" cap lets you transmit your dreams into other's, and a shirt becomes a touch-sensitive input device. As the show's press release puts it, "Dodge's objects fetishize the technological imperative, or the inevitable hybridization of man and machine, as something worthy of appreciation in itself." The works will be shown off at the Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in Brooklyn next week, but you can get a peek at tech just out of reach right now by perusing the accompanying catalog for the show and browsing the handful of images below.
