I am delighted to report the release of Professor Eduardo Miranda's latest musical composition, which includes an essay written by me on the future of music. Eduardo's work operates at the intersection of art, science and music and my essay considers how musical compositions may be made in the future.
Here's a link to the CD and an excerpt from my essay:
Citation:
Miah, A. (2011) Musical Intelligence for the Future, in Miranda, E. (2011) Mozart Reloaded, Sargasso Publishing [audio CD + book].
It may be no coincidence that Eduardo Miranda refers to his compositions as ‘recombinant’ processes, as this concept alludes to a way in which we might regard them as forms of biotechnological mutation, engineered to bring about new species categories. After all, Miranda’s work leads to the existence of new forms of musical experience and new ways of thinking about composition and creativity.
As with any biological mutation, the role of the creator in these compositions is difficult to specify. While certain processes begin with clearly defined interventions, the creative work also takes on a life of its own, intervening and changing the course of the final creation. We may even think of artwork generally in a similar way, whereby the artist’s influence on the final composition is understood as only one part of the series of processes that lead to the final work. When utilizing artificial intelligence to create art, this ambiguity is even more apparent.
Miranda’s compositions may be the first to answer the complex question of whether machines could ever approximate the kind of intelligence required to create music. In so doing, his work extends a number of discussions that have taken place in recent years about the possibility of artificial intelligence, the role of science and art collaborations, and what it is to be human.