We use our computers a lot to make repetitive tasks. And we feed them with loads of examples in order to teach them to distinguish between different situations. But how about letting them do (part of) the creative job? What if we let them create new and unique music?
One of the neat ways to make that happen is by imitating the nature (according to Darwin). We can consider pieces of music as individuals which can mix, mutate and compete to delight our ears. In this game, there is no “best” music, what we aim for is a “more different” one.
At the end, during the Open Saturday, this evolution will be steered by the public to make it fit their desires.
At first I would want to introduce you to fun examples of how an Evolutionary Algorithm works. Then we can start with the project in a simple way. And start playing with it. After the basics are covered, we can continue making it as elaborate as we want to. Many parts of the project can be discussed in order to find a more interesting way to think about it. We can even implement a feature just for the sake of it. Amongst the topics are: the best way to represent a piece of music, the building blocks we wish to start with, how to put them together, an ingenious way to define the difference(s) in music(s), the various ways to modify/tune them …
Making our Computers Music-Lover is a project by Nicolas Toussaint.