Collaborator, Tool, Catalyst: The Roles of Artificial Intelligence in the Compositional Process

AI&ARTS Webinar Series — Alan Turing Institute

Speaker: PhD Student Rober Laidlow (RNCM and Oxford, UK)

Date: 25/06/2021

Abstract: Machine learning algorithms do not easily fit into the traditional view of the compositional process: that is, the composer sits alone and dreams up wonderful music, which is then passed to an ensemble to perform. Is an AI algorithm a co-creator, or a simple tool? How far does it contribute to the creation of a work, and in what ways? Questions like these are the focus of this presentation, which attempts to address them through practical consideration of three pieces written over the last two years for classical music ensembles (Three Entistatios, Alter, and Silicon) that incorporated various machine learning models in their composition. In these pieces, machine learning does not take on a single, simple role that is easily summarised, but rather a series of positions as catalyst, tool, and collaborator, depending on the type of model, its place within the process and the overall intention of the work. There are no definite answers, but instead an exploration of different directions that artificial intelligence can take for composers beyond the sometimes-unhelpful label of “written by AI”.

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