Augmenting Live Coding with Evolved Patterns

• Published in: Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Music, Sound, Art and Design Vol. 9596; pp. 31 - 46
• Main Authors: Hickinbotham, Simon, Stepney, Susan
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2016; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Algorithms & data structures; Artificial intelligence; Evolutionary Algorithm; Live Performance; Musical Piece; Mutable Node; Parse Tree; User interface design & usability
• ISBN: 9783319310077; 3319310070
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-31008-4_3

We present a new system for integrating evolvutionary processes with live coding. The system is built upon an existing platform called Extramuros, which facilitates network-based collaboration on live coding performances. Our evolutionary approach uses the Tidal live coding language within this platform. The system uses a grammar to parse code patterns and create random mutations that conform to the grammar, thus guaranteeing that the resulting pattern has the correct syntax. With these mutations available, we provide a facility to integrate them during a live performance. To achieve this, we added controls to the Extramuros web client that allows coders to select patterns for submission to the Tidal interpreter. The fitness of the pattern is updated implicitly by the way the coder uses the patterns. In this way, appropriate patterns are continuously generated and selected for throughout a performance. We present examples of performances, and discuss the utility of this approach in live coding music.