The high art of procrastination

Was working on Honors thesis: 15 pages on the status of Beckett's self-translations. Reading up a lot on authorial intentionality, and the popular persistence/post-structuralist criticism thereof. Which led me, naturally, to Wikipediaing computer-generated music, and coming across this really cool article from a few months back (okay, I only skimmed it, because I'm not that much of a procrastinator, but I guarantee it's interesting):


Triumph of the Cyborg Composer

You should read it. Or at least listen to the music samples:


Sample of Emily Howell - Track 1


Sample of Emily Howell - Track 2

Two things strike me about the article:

1) I'm very impressed with Douglas Hoffstadter, who's quoted in it. I'd only read his book Gödel, Escher, Bach, which is quite fascinating but makes pronouncements like "Any computer that can beat a human at chess will also be able to write poetry." Hoffstadter, as quoted in this article, is clearly willing if reluctant to adjust his views on music, artificial intelligence, etc as new developments arise. Which is cool.

2) The whole debate of "Is it really music?" seems strikingly similar to the debate around the turn of the 20th century about whether photography was really "art." I have a feeling it'll turn out the same way--people will acknowledge that, yes, even if a machine does all the mechanical work (reproducing a certain view of a certain place at a certain time, or arranging a certain set of notes in a certain way), the important bit is the human element directing that production, however distantly. Even if the production was entirely uncontrolled by humans after the initial programming--if the program was just left on its own, with no one saying "write a slow waltz in a minor key for full orchestra" or "give me something in a 12-bar blue progression with arpeggiated ostinato for bass, harp, and drum kit" or whatever--humans would have defined the parameters for the composition anyway. And even if they didn't, frankly--if, I don't know, a computer programmed a computer to program a computer to produce music--I think we'll really stop worrying about this stuff. Because, you know, humans still enjoy looking at things like sunrises, and we know the sun and the rotation of the earth and the atmosphere don't get together and plan to look pretty.

In other news: Joel Grey + Muppets. Don't ask questions. Just follow the link.