Info

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new chapter in the ongoing development of technological tools that promise to transform the processes of creative work and artistic production. Now is the time to reconsider the relation of art and AI in practice, its aesthetic potential and to actively participate in and shape the transition and development of artistic and technological professions in the field of AI and music.

The symposium brings together experienced artists, practitioners, researchers and engineers who have been known for crossing over between composition, production, design and performance, engineering and development. The event addresses questions related to the agency of data, AI ethics, performance, and perception.

We hope to provide context from which to approach and make even more sense of the new an revolutionary tools bleeding edge research places at our fingertips.

As we want to promote a stimulating international exchange, the conference language will be English.

Keynotes

"Deconstructing data: the compositional process as critical inquiry"
Artemi Gioti (University College London, UK)

"Creative Dialectics: Playing with Intelligent Instruments"
Thor Magnusson (University of Sussex, UK)

Program

Schedule is based on the CET (UTC+01:00) time zone.

PANELS

The primary format of this academic symposium is moderated panel discussions in which fundamental questions related to the panel's topic are considered from the perspectives of the participants. To that end, the organisational committee has prepared a short text which both frames the discussion of each panel. 

PANEL 1: AGENCY OF DATA

Machine learning algorithms, whether supervised or unsupervised, require well-organized and structured data for optimal performance. The encoding of information is often as crucial as the machine learning algorithm's ability to identify structures and correlations. Thus, data has become an increasingly significant resource for musical innovation in both experimental composition and technological advancement. The sourcing, selection, and preparation of data themselves can be seen as artistic processes, revealing intentional biases. This panel discusses the way in which data, both big and small, is endowed with agency in creative processes by exploring the work of three participants. Furthermore, the panel examines the issues surrounding the problem of representation inherent to  datafication and the broader political implications of data as a commodity.

PANEL 2: AI AND ETHICS

The intersection of AI and ethics has been a subject of debate spanning various disciplines that relate with music in one way or another. Some claims, values and underlying motivations may apply across different communities’ perspectives whereas others might be highly specific. This panel can be used as a sounding board for participants’ personal points of contact with AI ethics and their interpretations, providing examples of how ethical questions are dealt with in their professional environments and their own work. After a short intro to each participant's stance and background, the panel will aim to derive one or several larger topics on which to elaborate further. This could involve but it is not limited to current philosophical movements relating to the subject area, as well as implications for one’s own work, as well as broader fields that may be affected, including stakeholders and societal, environmental, technological, economic, legal or political perspectives.

PANEL 3: MACHINE PERCEPTION

Perception can be regarded as a process of extracting information from the environment. Algorithms of computer vision and computer audition generate data for purposes such as automated classification, regression or prediction.

This panel aims to generate perspectives on the novel methods of machine perception and what it enables.

On the other hand, teaching machines to analyze and extract information from data collections and media streams also introduces limits and biases - who says what the machine should be listening for?

What do the expectations programmers equip their algorithms with imply?

PANEL 4: ECOSYSTEMS FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION

Technology has always changed the way we create, produce and enjoy music. Next to instruments and means of distribution, especially the domain of creative tools promises to be affected by the possibilities of ML and AI.

The ecosystem surrounding creation and processing of sound, the composition and performance of music as well as the environments under which audiences interact with the work that is created are changing with the emergence of new tools, both in the intimate domain of the production studio, as well as the macroscopic domain of collaboration, contribution, digital services and the economic frameworks that allow music to exist.

This panel will discuss the possible emergence of new paradigms for music production from a creative, technological and industrial point of view.

PANEL 5: AI IN PERFORMANCE

The panel discusses how Artificial Intelligence can offer novel possibilities for music performance. The panel examines the utilization of algorithms as co-performers and machine learning as a means of enhancing the interface between human bodies and sound production. Furthermore, the panel considers how machine learning itself can become a central element of performance and how bodies of data can be made performatively perceptible. It gathers viewpoints aimed at understanding the impact of creative AI on our interactions with technology, social dynamics, and knowledge creation.

We are looking forward to many exciting discussions!

The organizing committee,

Luc Döbereiner, Aleksandar Golovin, Joachim Goßmann, Norman Müller, Roland Sproll

This symposium is organised by the University of Music Trossingen's members of the KISS [Eng. Artificial Intelligence Service and Systems] project, a cooperative project developed and conducted together with Furtwangen University. The concert in the symposium program will be conducted with the support of the KISS/University of Music Trossingen's sound-laboratory "Latent Space - Space for Artistic Research and Design in Music and AI".

  ​​​​​​