The Embodied Interface: Assembling Interactive ALife Systems for Musical Performance

My research explores artificial life's (ALife's) potential as a co-creative agent in developing interactive audio and audio-visual works through the intertwined acts of performance, composition, and system design. As an interdisciplinary field drawing on biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science, ALife provides a rich basis for artistic research. ALife and AI are adjacent fields; they share conceptual features such as the exploration of intelligence and creativity. However, ALife goes deeper to understand what life is and what it could be. Adopting processes and concepts from ALife: flocking, growth, cyclical entrainment, genetic algorithms, open-ended evolution, and diverse intelligences, I develop interactive audio and audio-visual systems focused on timbre and spectromorphologies. Grounded in studies in creative coding and embodied performance, I aim to contribute to a interpretative, reflective practice that decenters human autonomy yet remains attuned to the distinctiveness of human performance. Through artistic experimentation and critical analysis, I will create artworks, performance strategies, and illustrate in general how musicians can actively shape emerging technologies rather than be subsumed by their rapid development.