How Music Technology Will Impact Personal Creative Expression

Abstract

This chapter is a position paper that explores issues relating to the design of new digital technologies that could enable even nonmusicians to create music they find meaningful and through which they can express their unique musical personality. We first propose criteria for evaluating the musical effectiveness of new tools, and then present a simple cognitive model to help explain key issues related to how humans are able to create and experience music. On this basis, we derive a set of guiding principles towards designing a new generation of tools that support creation. A major theoretical and practical challenge we raise is the need to bridge between mind and tool – that is, between the creator’s intents, which represent subjective musical experiences, and the computational formalisms required by digital tools in order to realize them. We also discuss the need for deep personalization on the levels of concepts, tools, and workflow. We finally propose components for a common framework that will enable the design of a new generation of tools that can explore many different approaches for expanding the bounds of personal creative expression

Citation

Oppenheim, D.V., Phillips, A. and Hollander, R. (2019), "How Music Technology Will Impact Personal Creative Expression", Einav, G. (Ed.) Digitized, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-619-920191003