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Improvising with Digital Auto-Scaffolding: How Mimi Changes and Enhances the Creative Process

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Abstract

This chapter poses, and proposes some answers to, questions about the origins and nature of creativity when digital media takes an active role in the music-making process. The discussions are centered on François’ Mimi (Multimodal Interaction for Musical Improvisation ) system, which enables a musician to seed the computer with musical ideas and then improvise atop re-combinations of these ideas; the system provides the musician with visual foreknowledge of the machine’s intent and review of the interaction. They extend to the different instantiations of, and extensions to, the Mimi system, which are designed with various interaction nuances in mind, and engender new forms of creativity. We review each Mimi version, from the original blue-and-white silhouette display, to the Scriabin -inspired varicolored panels, to the multi-paneled user-directed Mimi4x . In each scenario, we consider the impact of Mimi on the creative process and the resulting performance; specifically, we describe the interaction between a performer, the composer (when this is different from the performer), and the system, analyzing the techniques used to successfully negotiate a performance with Mimi, and the formal musical structures that result from this interaction.

Keywords

Improvisation System Visual Interface Musical Structure Musical Instrument Digital Interface Musical Content 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgement:

This material is based in part on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0347988. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Process Pool MusicLos AngelesUSA
  2. 2.Queen Mary University of LondonLondonUK
  3. 3.Interactions IntelligenceLondonUK

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