Data-Driven Art

Machines become abstractions when their purpose is not well defined. Machines may be designed as tools, but they are animate objects in the sense that they are in the loop between ideas (thinking) and the final product.

With the merging of man and machine not too far away (The Singularity) we will consult more and more with machine thinking, as we always have in the past. Machines are embedded in the processing chain between ideas and the final product, whether it be music or text, or food. If a machine generates an interesting idea, it is essentially doing some of the thinking for us. How will we react when machines can in fact come up with better ideas?

On data-driven art:

Also called algorithmic art, but this will be re-labeled in the future, perhaps "New Aesthetic".

Take guitar or sax solos for example. In the old-school days we used to play things in "phrases". Phrases are now samples. Phrases used to be associated with the length of an exhalation, even if played by non-wind instruments.

What is a "digital breath?" This is an interesting metaphor that brings together how we make music with the body and how make it with the mind. Even if we can figure out how to simulate the process of manual phrasing, it is always the mind at work.