IRESAP

In collaboration with companies specialized in music distribution, networked communication and information retrieval, the project wishes through method development to offer both musicians and audiences the opportunity to reconsider the transmitter-receiver logic of traditional artistic events and enable a more interactive multimodal experience.

Purpose of the project

This project explores designs for musical interaction between participants with the goal to prove that also a dislocated musical performance can create a sense of immersion in merged reality performances. To create an opportunity for a sense of immersion in an event the access to continuous information relevant to the current context needs to be distributed to all participants.

Method and cooperation partners

The project group develops these methods within the main fields of competences among the project partners including user experience design, musical performance, networked communication (Ericsson), information retrieval (Spotify) and interfaces for handheld devices (teenage engineering).

Well-designed information retrieval integrated with the creative flow is essential for the artistic processes that the project group envision. The project explores designs that enable artists to use and reuse artistic material from vast repositories, and further, designs that support reflection on artistic decisions taken in action during rehearsal, improvisation, or performance, and how this process can be reinforced by artificial intelligence. All stages of the process, from preparation to the performance itself, which may be distributed in space, constitutes data for this project, and knowledge about the artistic process will have impact on our research.

Significant is that other sense parameters are involved in creating presence despite physical dislocation, where the spatial properties of the audio is of primary importance in this project. The case of music performance in the depth of the wildwoods, broadcasted via 6G network to audiences and other musicians is the core object of study in this project.

IRESAP has a focus on artistic research and design, while the project builds on contributions from several, primarily technical, areas. These include merged reality, information access, and intelligent and new user interfaces for musical expression.

Research questions

The project group has formulated research questions to fulfil the aims of the project, identified to be of both artistic and technological nature. However, the overarching research question is described as follows:

What design, reinforced by artificial intelligence, enables artists to collaboratively use and reuse artistic material from vast repositories in real time, and how can this process be understood as a method in the development of merged reality?

The underlying questions concern the development and use of new/existing instruments, MIR (Music Information Retrieva), AI and musical performance in the context of the project.

Intended outcome

The results of the project are expected to be:

• technical solutions for musical performance with electronic instruments,
• increased knowledge of the prerequisites for musical excellence with electronic instruments,
• increased knowledge of and models for concerts in merged reality.

The introduction of new technologies and possibilities inevitably change the artistic practice. Through in-situ studies of performances, with audience, utilising the working prototypes, the research group expects to gather knowledge on how to develop the methods of the project.