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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Investigating the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation : experimental case studies using a novel application of the subsumption architecture

Linson, Adam January 2014 (has links)
This thesis investigates the cognitive foundations of collaborative musical free improvisation. To explore the cognitive underpinnings of the collaborative process, a series of experimental case studies was undertaken in which expert improvisors performed with an artificial agent. The research connects ecological musicology and subsumption robotics, and builds upon insights from empirical psychology pertaining to the attribution of intentionality. A distinguishing characteristic of free improvisation is that no over-arching framework of formal musical conventions defines it, and it cannot be positively identified by sound alone, which poses difficulties for traditional musicology. Current musicological research has begun to focus on the social dimension of music, including improvisation. Ecological psychology, which focuses on the relation of cognition to agent–environment dynamics using the notion of affordances, has been shown to be a promising approach to understanding musical improvisation. This ecological approach to musicology makes it possible to address the subjective and social aspects of improvised music, as opposed to the common treatment of music as objective and neutral. The subjective dimension of musical listening has been highlighted in music cognition studies of cue abstraction, whereby listeners perceive emergent structures while listening to certain forms of music when no structures are identified in advance. These considerations informed the design of the artificial agent, Odessa, used for this study. In contrast to traditional artificial intelligence (AI), which tends to view the world as objective and neutral, behaviour-based robotics historically developed around ideas similar to those of ecological psychology, focused on agent–environment dynamics and the ability to deal with potentially rapidly changing environments. Behaviour-based systems that are designed using the subsumption architecture are robust and flexible in virtue of their modular, decentralised design comprised of simple interactions between simple mechanisms. The competence of such agents is demonstrated on the basis of their interaction with the environment and ability to cope with unknown and dynamic conditions, which suggests the concept of improvisation. This thesis documents a parsimonious subsumption design for an agent that performs musical free improvisation with human co-performers, as well as the experimental studies conducted with this agent. The empirical component examines the human experience of collaborating with the agent and, more generally, the cognitive psychology of collaborative improvisation. The design was ultimately successful, and yielded insights about cognition in collaborative improvisation, in particular, concerning the central relationship between perceived intentionality and affordances. As a novel application of the subsumption architecture, this research contributes to AI/robotics and to research on interactive improvisation systems. It also contributes to music psychology and cognition, as well as improvisation studies, through its empirical grounding of an ecological model of musical interaction.
2

Improvisational architecture

Fadnes, Petter Frost January 2004 (has links)
No description available.
3

Improvised experimental music and the construction of a collaborative aesthetic

Chase, Stephen Timothy January 2007 (has links)
Western musical aesthetics places composition at the centre of its enquiry, and this is expressed forcefully through the concept of the musical work: the product of a composer realised by performers who interpret the composer's score. European 'free' or improvised experimental music (IEM) is examined because of its challenge to mainstream musical thought, since it is the product of more than one organising mind in the moment of performance. The thesis shows how IEM draws upon ideas such as the work concept, articulating an identity which is bound to the work concept even as it criticises those ideas and work with ideas from other musical traditions. Following an account of the origins of IEM in Britain (chapter 1), chapter 2 focuses upon the work concept detailing both the resistance of the concept to new kinds of practice and its influence upon new music. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the role of the individual within a collaborative context, using materials from interviews with improvisers to draw out concerns which motivate IEM. The themes of performance and play are extrapolated which respectively complement and conflict with the 'work concept. Chapter 4 examines these themes in a more abstract way exploring parallels with the philosophical critique of institutional models of democracy. Chapter 5 presents a case study of musicians acquiring improvising skills under the guidance of an experienced improviser. The musical negotiations between the members of the group are considered in light of the themes of performance and play upon the making of the group's aesthetic character. Chapter 6 summarises the main themes of the preceding chapters showing that the aesthetic identity of IEM distinguishes itself from the concerns of mainstream musical aesthetics by virtue of its emphasis on collaboration, while at the same time drawing upon the individualistic motivations of the work concept. The thesis concludes with proposals for further research arising from these conclusions.
4

Improvisation, music and learning : an interpretive phenomenological analysis

Rose, Simon January 2012 (has links)
This thesis explores the creative process of improvisation in music with a specific emphasis on investigating its potential for learning. The widespread practice of improvisation in music is relatively absent from education and there is an urgent need to more fully understand improvisation's processes. A broad body of knowledge of improvisation in music has developed within the international community of musicians whose practice is centred on improvisation and an understanding of this knowledge could become highly relevant for a variety of educational contexts. Ten highly experienced, world leading improvisers from Europe and North America took part in semi-structured interviews and were asked the over-arching question: What is the place of improvisation in your practice? Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was the chosen method for the enquiry.

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