Collaborating with an Autonomous Agent to Generate Affective Music

Fabio Morreale, Antonella De Angeli
2017 Computers in Entertainment  
4 Multidisciplinary research recently has been investigating solutions to offer new experiences of music mak-5 ing to musically untrained users. Our approach proposes to distribute the process of music making between 6 the user and an autonomous agent by encoding this collaboration in the emotional domain. In this framework, 7 users communicate the emotions they wish to express to Robin, the autonomous agent, which interprets this 8 information to generate music with matching affective flavor.
more » ... obin is taught a series of basic compositional Q1 Q2 Q3 9 rules of tonal music, which are used to create original compositions in Western classical-like music. Associa-10 tions between alterations to musical factors and changes in the communicated emotions are operationalized 11 on the basis of recent outcomes that have emerged from research in the field of psychology of music. At each 12 new bar, a number of stochastic processes determine the values of seven musical factors, whose combinations 13 best match the intended emotion. The ability of Robin to validly communicate emotions was tested in an 14 experimental study (N = 33). Results indicated that listeners correctly identified the intended emotions. 15 Robin was employed for the purposes of two interactive artworks, which are also discussed in the article, 16 showing the potential of the algorithm to be employed in interactive installations. 17 CCS Concepts: r Applied computing ∼ Sound and music computing • Human computer interaction 18 ∼ Auditory feedback • Interaction design ∼ User interface design 19 Additional Key Words and Phrases: Algorithmic composition, music and emotions, musical metacreation, 20 interactive installations 21 ACM Reference Format: 22 Fabio Morreale and Antonella De Angeli. 2016. Collaborating with an autonomous agent to generate affective 23 music.
doi:10.1145/2967508 fatcat:4kaljkoprvcc5nqggw5fq6gbci