Improvising a Live Score to an Interactive Brain-Controlled Film

Richard Ramchurn, Juan Pablo Martinez-Avila, Sarah Martindale, Alan Chamberlain, Max L Wilson, and Steve Benford

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

We report on the design and deployment of systems for the performance of live score accompaniment to an interactive movie by a Networked Musical Ensemble. In this case, the audio-visual content of the movie is selected in real time based on user input to a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). Our system supports musical improvisation between human performers and automated systems responding to the BCI. We explore the performers' roles during two performances when these socio-technical systems were implemented, in terms of coordination, problem-solving, managing uncertainty and musical responses to system constraints. This allows us to consider how features of these systems and practices might be incorporated into a general tool, aimed at any musician, which could scale for use in different performance settings involving interactive media.

Citation

Richard Ramchurn, Juan Pablo Martinez-Avila, Sarah Martindale, Alan Chamberlain, Max L Wilson, and Steve Benford. 2019. Improvising a Live Score to an Interactive Brain-Controlled Film. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3672856

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{Ramchurn2019,
 abstract = {We report on the design and deployment of systems for the performance of live score accompaniment to an interactive movie by a Networked Musical Ensemble. In this case, the audio-visual content of the movie is selected in real time based on user input to a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). Our system supports musical improvisation between human performers and automated systems responding to the BCI. We explore the performers' roles during two performances when these socio-technical systems were implemented, in terms of coordination, problem-solving, managing uncertainty and musical responses to system constraints. This allows us to consider how features of these systems and practices might be incorporated into a general tool, aimed at any musician, which could scale for use in different performance settings involving interactive media. },
 address = {Porto Alegre, Brazil},
 author = {Richard Ramchurn and Juan Pablo Martinez-Avila and Sarah Martindale and Alan Chamberlain and Max L Wilson and Steve Benford},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.3672856},
 editor = {Marcelo Queiroz and Anna Xambó Sedó},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 pages = {31--36},
 publisher = {UFRGS},
 title = {Improvising a Live Score to an Interactive Brain-Controlled Film},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2019/nime2019_paper007.pdf},
 year = {2019}
}