Fight or Flight: Towards the modelling of emergent ensemble dynamics

Abstract

This paper explored the 'ENSEMBLE' system, an agent based musical 'Prisoner's Dilemma' tournament designed by the author and implemented in Cycling 74's MAXMSP programming environment. The aims for this system are wide ranging, with initial experiments focusing on an algorithmic composer's assistant that works in both real and non-real time and is able to manipulate both auditory and visual media. Extensions of the system involve the incorporation of real-time interaction with live performers allowing for collaborative music making. The main premise behind this system is the modelling of the ensemble dynamics produced through the use of performance indeterminacy, pioneered by the 'New York School' (Earl Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff) in the 1950s, and equally having profound effect on experimental music through the 1960s (Morgan, 1991: 359). Also often broadly referred to as non-idiomatic improvisation, the term performance indeterminacy is preferred by the author to avoid confusion with Jazz based forms of improvisation which tend to dominate peoples perception of the nature of these situations.