| Title | 36. Mapping the Influence |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Iannis Xenakis’s GENDYN Algorithms as a Means for Creative Explorations in Live Improvised Feedback Music |
| Contributor | Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0390.38 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0390/chapters/10.11647/obp.0390.38 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2024-10-09 |
| Long abstract | Iannis Xenakis’s pioneering work has been extensively prolific and diverse. Exploring his compositional principles within the context of today’s computational capabilities, today’s state-of-the-art music technologies, and contemporary aesthetics may offer composers and performers the possibility to explore uncharted territories in their music creativity and music making. My latest free improvisation performances have been such kinds of explorations; they extensively rely on the use of Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis combined with real-time data feedback processes. I explore ways of influencing a Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis algorithm in SuperCollider (Gendy1) using its own audio signal. The audio signal either influences parameters of the Gendy1 Unit Generator itself or affects other parameters in the overall digital signal processing that the Gendy1 Unit Generator belongs to. To manage the contribution of the feedback in the process and to control other parameters of the stochastic distributions I use Machine Learning mapping and more specifically the program Wekinator. The combination of these processes offers a great variety of quite harsh, often unstable, and unpredictable spectra of tonal and noisy sounds that call for interaction and playfulness in the context of live improvised music. My essential argument, aside from the technical or aesthetical aspects of it, is that in my case Xenakis’s work has primarily influenced me in being musically curious, explorative, daring to try, daring to borrow processes from different practices, and daring to challenge aesthetics, concepts, techniques, and technologies. |
| Page range | pp. 591–604 |
| Print length | 14 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris is a composer, performer, and educator. His practice comprises computer-aided compositions, interactive audiovisual installations, and performances, immersive audiowalks, improvisation, generative intermedia performances, music for dance and theatre. He obtained a BA in Double Bass, and a BA in Electronic Music and Composition from Rotterdam Conservatoire, while following courses at the Institute of Sonology (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague) and at Ircam. Furthermore, he obtained two MA degrees, both with distinction, one in Art and Technology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and one in Creative Education from Falmouth University. In 2019 he completed his PhD at University of Sussex with a CHASE-AHRC scholarship. His dissertation “IM-Medea: Posthumansim and Remediation in Music-theatre,” was ranked by the Leonardo Abstract Service 2020 (MIT Press), among the twenty most relevant PhD studies situated on the intersection between art, science, and technology. He has been working in higher education since 2011, at Falmouth University, University of Sussex, University of Brighton, Ionian University, and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has been a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA) since 2012.