A music-making machine that uses a human subconscious as a functional component, blurring the boundaries between us and machines.
In this musical performance, genetic algorithms slowly evolve and weave a deep fabric of music. Careful brain measurements of one listener are used as the basis for genetic selection. Musical ‘genes’ play, mutate, and if enjoyed by the listener, mate with other genes to produce musical offspring. Those that don’t please the listener are selected out. While we listen, the subject’s subconscious summons from genetic space a composition reflecting their innermost affinities. What will the music from inside you sound like?
This is an interactive piece in which the user makes no conscious choices, just subconscious reactions.
This will be produced in collaboration with Harvard brain researcher Dr. Thomas Deuel and one or more accomplished composers.
The performance will be accompanied by projected visuals depicting the genes and their interactions. In it, we see the population of genes that creates the music at that moment, see them mate, mutate, reproduce and die while we hear the resulting changes in the music.
[ Illustrations by Josh Wall ]
