The Continuator
Question: How to interact with a style learning machine ? Can such an interaction pass the musical Turing test ? How to create and sustain musical excitement?
The Continuator project involves a real time interaction with a system that learns musical styles. With the Continuator, users can play music as they wish, and the system will automatically engage in a dialogue by producing musical phrases designed as continuations of user input. Gradually, the dialogue becomes more and more interesting and challenging as the system continuously learns from all the previous interactions. We are interested in the forms of excitement produced, and the links with, e.g. the theory of Flow.
See also: Duets with the Continuator
Media
 Bernard Lubat and the Continuator at Ircam during the Résonances Festival. |
 Claude Barthélémy, one of the fastest and most original guitarist in the world. |
 György Kurtag, performer of improvised contemporaneous music. |
 The Continuator and children between 3 and 5 years old. |
Participants: François Pachet
References
Playing with Virtual Musicians: the Continuator in practice. IEEE Multimedia, 9(3):77-82 2002.
Interacting with a musical learning system: the continuator. In C. Anagnostopoulou, M. Ferrand, A. Smaill, editor, Music and Artificial Intelligence, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (vol. 2445 ), pages 119-132, Springer Verlag. September 2002.
When Children Reflect on Their Playing Style: The Continuator. ACM Computers in Entertainment, 1(2), 2004.
Beyond the Cybernetic Jam fantasy: The Continuator. IEEE Computers Graphics and Applications, 4(1):31-35 January/February 2004. special issue on Emerging Technologies
Enhancing Individual Creativity with Interactive Musical Reflective Systems. In Deliège, I. and Wiggins, G., editor, Musical Creativity: Multidisciplinary Research in Theory And Practice, Psychology Press. 2006.
