Iamus (2012)

AI & Code

An artificial intelligence vying for a place in conservatory archives. Eschewing mimicry, the algorithm 'evolved' original avant-garde worlds that musicians hailed as an intellectual challenge. By releasing a billion free tracks, the creators dealt a preemptive strike to the very concept of music copyright.

Full text

Before Iamus, algorithms were merely talented forgers, mimicking the styles of the greats. Scientists at the University of Málaga took a different path: their cluster of 352 processors was designed to generate its own unique avant-garde music. In less than 10 minutes, the system could produce a complex symphonic score in PDF, fully ready for the musicians' stands. In 2012, this material was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Despite initial skepticism, many critics admitted the machine-generated music did not sound 'dead'; on the contrary, it presented a genuine intellectual and professional challenge to live performers.

However, the real shock was felt by the legal world. The related Melomics109 system generated nearly a billion compositions, which the developers released into the public domain under a CC0 license. By doing so, the team essentially 'staked a claim' to a vast array of melodic combinations for free. This precedent forced legal scholars worldwide to grapple with a new dilemma: how can the uniqueness of a human composition be proven if a machine has already mathematically exhausted most of its potential motifs?

Influenced by

  • UPIC INSPIRED
  • Illiac Suite EVOLVED

Influenced

  • Generative AI INFLUENCED
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node.music - an interactive map of the history of electronic sound

From the Telharmonium, which streamed sound over telephone wires at the end of the 19th century, to music written by AI.

Scroll down - that is how you move through time in a straight line. The [INFLUENCE] mode in the top menu shows connections: who begat whom and how concepts shaped each other. To explore the influences deeper, switch to [HORIZON VIEW].

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Black lines are direct links: technology, descent, founding, rivalry.Grey lines are looser: ideas, techniques, collaborations.Hover over a line to see what it connects.

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node.music

Interactive timeline of electronic music history, from the 200-ton Telharmonium (1897) to neural audio.

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