Kingsley Ash

Dr. Nikos Stavropoulos

Livecell is a system for the interactive real-time composition and performance of music for live string quartet. Users interact with a touch screen to create and destroy cells in a continuously evolving artificial life simulation based on cellular automata. The state of these cells is continuously translated into a musical score, which is then transmitted over the network to the musicians' laptops to be performed by the string quartet live as it appears on their screens.

Different areas of the interface correspond to the different instruments in the string quartet, and cells are able to grow and move between these areas allowing the composition and the instrumentation to evolve both under the direction of the user and with the natural evolution of the cells. Users are able to determine and change the rules used in the cell evolution calculations, as well as affect the form, rhythm and harmonic colour of the musical material produced.

Through the system a single user can take on the roles of both composer, conductor and improviser to determine the textures, harmonies, tempo and other musical parameters of the emerging composition, mediated by the technology and performed live by the string quartet. The musical output is complex and the result of a careful balance between the influence of the user and the calculations of the algorithm, resulting in a very engaging experience for the user, performers and listeners alike.

Performance at the International Computer Music Conference, Huddersfield, 2011.

Performance at Pixilierations Festival, Providence, USA.

Performances/Presentations/Demos:

27.11.12 - Demonstration and paper at 2012 KEAMS conference, Seoul, Korea

11.07.12 - Demonstration as part of the 2012 Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference, London

28.06.12 - Performance at Birmingham Conservatoire as part of the Interface 2012 symposium

20.06.12 - Wilton's Music Hall, London - live mixed string/wind quartet

26.04.12 - Livecell performance with live string quartet at Leeds International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition. Leeds College of Music

11.11.11 - Livecell paper presentation at the Music & Technologies Conference, Kaunas, Lithuania

4-6.11.11 - Demonstration at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival, Sage, Newcastle

24.09.11 - Performance with live string quartet at the Pixelerations Festival, Providence, Rhode Island (USA).

03.08.11 - Performances with live string quartet at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Huddersfield.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UiPHMglUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHC6VE_c7H0

24-26.05.11 - Demonstration at the 2011 Thinking Digital Conference, The Sage, Newcastle

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Livecell receives an honarable mention in the Electric Monster Laptop Ensemble Commission Award from Montana State University:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/electric-monster/the-electric-monster-laptop-ensemble-commission-award/443366642234#!/note.php?note_id=10150103383977235

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Livecell wins the 2010 NEMart European digital art competition.

The competition took place in Barcelona 13-15th October as part of the 2010 Networked Electronic Media summit.

http://nem-summit.eu

 

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Contact:

Kingsley Ash
k.ash@leedsmet.ac.uk

Dr. Nikos Stavropoulos
n.stavropoulos@leedsmet.ac.uk

Caedmon Hall
Headingley Campus
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
LS6 3QS

+44 113 8127428