Edited by author 08-01-2006 02:15 AM
Generative Music, since coming into the public eye with Brian Eno's 1970's ambient work, has lately been gaining more attention for creating video game background music that better fits the game's mood. It's also very useful for creating ever-changing soundscapes for interactive art installations.

Simran Gleason will speak about, and perform, several of his recent reactive and generative music algorithms, including Haunted Garden, a listening room that creates an ambient soundscape to harmonically match what it hears. Simran recently taught it to play piano, and will accompany it in a short duet. Also on the menu are Life Music, a music generator from Conway's game of Life that inadvertently turned into an automatic horror movie soundtrack generator, as well as DNA Notes, which melodifies DNA data, and Alea, a random composition generator inspired by Brian Eno's "Music for Airports." If time permits, Simran will talk about some of the issues involved in composing for randomness.

Simran Gleason is a composer, musician, programmer, and cetera. He likes to build instruments -- physical and software -- and play them in strange ensembles such as Mixtape from Mars or the Killing My Lobster Science Band. He does sound design for film and theater and creates sound sculpture installations in the occasional dusty place. Lately he has been concentrating on generative music that takes input from its surroundings to create soundscapes. Oh yeah, he's also a professional nerd by day at Collabnet.

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