CECIA (Collaborative Electroacoustic Composition with Intelligent Agents)

CECIA (Collaborative Electroacoustic Composition with Intelligent Agents) is an innovative art project that integrates the creative agency of five composers and Machine Learning algorithms in order to produce a coherent composition of electroacoustic music.

The project aims to explore collaborative music creation, harnessing the creativity of electroacoustic composers and Intelligent Agents through a cloud computing platform.

The collaborative process of composition will be conducted online in an iterative fashion, in which the composers will submit and evaluate sound material/ideas/suggestions. These data will train the machine learning algorithms, which will generate new sonic structures according to the group preferences. The framework implements a decentralized model for electroacoustic music composition, featuring hybrid agency (human-algorithmic) and distributed authorship.

The selected composers are expected to work remotely, using the bespoke cloud computing platform, and will receive support by the project moderators, Kosmas Giannoutakis and Artemi – Maria Gioti. Each composer will receive a fee of € 400. The resulting composition will be premiered at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in December 2019. The collaborative process will take place in a fixed period of four months.

All creative contents generated by the algorithms and the selected composers will be licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows ZKM and the »Interfaces« project the right to publish them in any physical or digital format.