ABSTRACT
The past 20 odd years has seen a marked increase in the creation of, and interest in, software/hardware systems that can convincingly improvise with humans. At the same time, improvisation has been convincingly theorized as an essentially dialogical act, and as a site for assorted identity constructions, and therefore as an archetypically human practice. What, therefore, might improvising systems tell us about human behavior? Can a machine improvise, or only seem to improvise? Does answering this question matter? Why try to create systems that improvise? After a discussion of theoretical issues such as these, I will turn to a brief discussion of two improvising systems, OMax and Voyager, and compare their approaches to generating machine improvisations. I will then propose that an Improvising Machine equivalent of the Loebner Prize should be established, and that a critical investigation of such improvising machines may well tell us much about what we take both improvisation to be, and the cognitive processes that enter into the production of improvisations. In other words, improvising machines - their design, implementation, use, and study - can be seen as an ideal object of sustained interdisciplinary research consistent with CIRMMT's mandate and existing research axes.
ABOUT ERIC LEWIS
Eric Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University, the Director of the McGill Center for the Critical Study of Improvisation, and the McGill Site Coordinator for ICASP (Improvisation, Community and Social Practice). His research focuses on the aesthetics, metaphysics and politics of improvised music, and he is particularly interested in bring empirical research in music cognition into greater dialogue with humanistic approaches to the study of improvisation. He is an active member of the AUMI Research Group (Adaptive Use Music Instrument), which has created, and continues to refine, software for allowing those with severe physical disabilities to make music. He is presently completing three book manuscripts related to improvisation: The Video Art of Sylvia Safdie; Intents and Purposes-Towards an Ontology of Improvised Music; Improvisation and Social Aesthetics. In a former life he was a scholar of ancient physical science, and has written extensively on the history of chemistry. He is an active improviser on brass and electronics, and a member of improvising ensembles such as The Murray Street Band, The Ratchet Orchestra, and The Instant Synthesis Ensemble.