Designing for the 21st Century Design Challenge 5 - Embodiment of a Live Music Algorithm by Tim Blackwell: Nature-inspired algorithms for autonomous music generation have been developed which have been used in performances. This software has many of the abilities of a live improvising musician, it can create, suggest and respond to those around it. However, it only has presence as software. In this design challenge we are interested in embodiment. How do we imbue the software with a meaningful physical presence?

If we assume that this will have a positive effect on the experience of the listener and off the performer, possibly increasing the space of possible interactions for example, the question comes: How do we design the embodiment of live music making software? Should such an embodiment be given the same status as a human making machine? If so, how can we achieve this? How does embodiment effect the performances of other interacting musicians? Does any of this investigation provide us with a handle on how we might embody software simulation in the real world in general? How do we develop a “sense of presence” with a machine?

Designing for the 21st century often necessitates high-level knowledge or use of computational systems. Such systems are increasingly being used to model and simulate the world in which we live from the physical right through to the social. In contemporary art and design practice computational systems are frequently embedded in products that have a physical presence in the real world.

However, even though design is increasingly dominated by computation, it is not clear that the relationship between these previously disparate disciplines is fully understood or exploited. In this cluster, therefore, we are interested in exploring this relationship and encourage visitors to the website and members of the cluster to send in, and answer questions relating to this area.