Ars Electronica Garden Paris

Challenging the limits of AI for the next generation of co-creative tools

IRCAM Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (FR)

The Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music is one of the largest public research centers dedicated to musical creation and scientific research. After 42 years, it remains a pioneering and world-leading venue where artistic vision converges with scientific and technological innovation. Following this tradition of combining scientific and artistic approaches, the IRCAM AIxMusic garden will display multidisciplinary views of both the scientific and creative research carried out on AI. It will feature six events: Can we do the same with less – AI in 64 Kb, a hands-on workshop for the AIxMusic Hackathon by Philippe Esling (FR) introducing techniques for lightweight AI and demonstration of embedded technologies; the panel Frontiers of Music and Artificial Intelligence organized by Elaine Chew (FR), and discussions with Dorien Herremans (BE) and Philippe Esling (FR); the panel Musical Generatives – a discussion panel In the framework of the Forum Vertigo 2020; Little Etudes for Piano – a performance by Elaine Chew (FR) a series of short piano pieces based on cardiac electrical anomalies each described by Pier Lambiase (UK); AI Creative Agents: The Man I Love – a video featuring the Improtek project interpreted by Hervé Sellin (FR) and Remi Fox (FR); and the performance of the Three Ladies Project by artist Georges Bloch featuring the DYCI2Lib technology at Manifeste 2020.

IRCAM - artistic, scientific and technological visions come together (FR)
IRCAM – artistic, scientific and technological visions come together (FR)
Credit: Philippe Barbosa
IRCAM - artistic, scientific and technological visions come together (FR)
IRCAM – artistic, scientific and technological visions come together (FR)
Credit: Philippe Barbosa

Timetable

Program

Talk: Musical Generativities (Facilitated by H.Vinet)
IRCAM (FR)

Techniques for the automatic generation of music – which have long been focused on systems ruling the score – are now being deployed at all levels of sound representation: signal, gesture, symbol, form. Sound synthesis using deep networks constitutes a radical break with conventional modelling approaches. How do composers handle these emerging possibilities?

Talk: Frontiers of Music and Artificial Intelligence
IRCAM (FR)

Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly prominent role in music composition, performance, and production. How does this benefit or undermine musicians? Where are such developments taking us? Two young protagonists at the leading edge of AIxMusic will debate the limits and future directions of AIxMusic, tackling topics ranging from classic questions of AI takeover to therapeutic and gaming applications to discussions of lightweight deep AI, of uncertainty and unknown models and dimensions.

Three Ladies Project
Georges Bloch (FR)

Billie Holiday, Édith Piaf and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf are three great ladies of music, born in 1915. Could we make them sing together? This was the subject of a performance conceived for the music festival Le pietre che cantano in L’Aquila (Italy) in 2015. Using DYCI2Lib software, the three ladies finally sing The Man I Love together. ImproteK, the earlier version of DYCI2Lib, already made it possible to intelligently link the harmony of the base material used (called “memories”) to the harmonic progression of the reference song (called “scenario”).

Little Etudes for Piano
Elaine Chew (US/GB)

Little Etudes is a series of short piano pieces based on cardiac electrical anomalies. Aberrant electrical activity in the heart can cause the heart to beat irregularly. Abnormal heart rhythms form interesting musical patterns, which raises the question of whether all natural-sounding musical rhythms have a physiological basis.

AI Creative Agents: The Man I Love
Hervé Sellin (FR), Remi Fox (FR)

The Musical Representations team in the STMS laboratory at IRCAM is working on “cyber-human” systems. Just as cyber-physical systems create a continuity between the digital logic of computers and the physical world by capturing, modeling, and modifying it, they establish a creative continuity between machines and musicians using mathematical modeling and artificial intelligence.

Can we do the same with less – AI in 64 Kb
Philippe Esling (FR)

This hands-on workshop for the AIxMusic Hackathon by Philippe Esling (FR) introduces techniques for lightweight AI, demonstration of embedded technologies and a 64 Kb competition for an AIxMusic hackathon project challenging the current limits of AI and inspired by the Demoscene and the 64Kb competitions.

Project Credits / Acknowledgements

IRCAM – CNRS UMR 9912 STMS – Sorbonne Université
Equipe représentations musicales – Groupe ACIDS


The AIxMusic Festival, a S+T+ARTS flagship event, is organised by Ars Electronica and the European Commission.

AIxMusic
European Commission
IRCAM