Papers by Martin Ullrich
arXiv (Cornell University), Feb 23, 2024
In recent years, machine learning, and in particular generative adversarial neural networks (GANs... more In recent years, machine learning, and in particular generative adversarial neural networks (GANs) and attention-based neural networks (transformers), have been successfully used to compose and generate music, both melodies and polyphonic pieces. Current research focuses foremost on style replication (eg. generating a Bach-style chorale) or style transfer (eg. classical to jazz) based on large amounts of recorded or transcribed music, which in turn also allows for fairly straight-forward "performance" evaluation. However, most of these models are not suitable for human-machine co-creation through live interaction, neither is clear, how such models and resulting creations would be evaluated. This article presents a thorough review of music representation, feature analysis, heuristic algorithms, statistical and parametric modelling, and human and automatic evaluation measures, along with a discussion of which approaches and models seem most suitable for live interaction.
transcript Verlag eBooks, Dec 31, 2015
Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft, 2024
arXiv.org, 2024
In recent years, machine learning, and in particular generative adversarial neural networks (GANs... more In recent years, machine learning, and in particular generative adversarial neural networks (GANs) and attention-based neural networks (transformers), have been successfully used to compose and generate music, both melodies and polyphonic pieces. Current research focuses foremost on style replication (eg. generating a Bach-style chorale) or style transfer (eg. classical to jazz) based on large amounts of recorded or transcribed music, which in turn also allows for fairly straight-forward "performance" evaluation. However, most of these models are not suitable for human-machine co-creation through live interaction, neither is clear, how such models and resulting creations would be evaluated. This article presents a thorough review of music representation, feature analysis, heuristic algorithms, statistical and parametric modelling, and human and automatic evaluation measures, along with a discussion of which approaches and models seem most suitable for live interaction.
J.B. Metzler eBooks, 2016
Organised Sound, Apr 26, 2022
Organised Sound
This article sketches a theoretical framework that allows the conceptual inclusion of non-human a... more This article sketches a theoretical framework that allows the conceptual inclusion of non-human animals and artificial intelligences in human sonic collaborations. Post-humanist concepts that question the categorical divide between nature and culture, following Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, converge with contemporary, non-adaptationist evolutionary aesthetics. Therefore, the anthropocentric ‘othering’ of non-humans gives way to a concept of a more-than-human sociality of sound. We offer some theoretical propositions for the extension of socially engaged sound practices to collaborations between humans and non-human animals and between humans and artificial intelligences, and then exemplify such multispecies sonic collaborations by analysing some existing projects from the fields of sound art and musical performance. After drawing some more general conclusions from these analyses, we hint at potential aesthetical and ethical parallels between animal and AI creative agency. Finally,...
Organised Sound, 2022
This article sketches a theoretical framework that allows the conceptual inclusion of non-human a... more This article sketches a theoretical framework that allows the conceptual inclusion of non-human animals and artificial intelligences in human sonic collaborations. Post-humanist concepts that question the categorical divide between nature and culture, following Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, converge with contemporary, non-adaptationist evolutionary aesthetics. Therefore, the anthropocentric 'othering' of nonhumans gives way to a concept of a more-than-human sociality of sound. We offer some theoretical propositions for the extension of socially engaged sound practices to collaborations between humans and non-human animals and between humans and artificial intelligences, and then exemplify such multispecies sonic collaborations by analysing some existing projects from the fields of sound art and musical performance. After drawing some more general conclusions from these analyses, we hint at potential aesthetical and ethical parallels between animal and AI creative agency. Finally, we point out a few questions we see as important for future advanced settings of such collaborations, especially when it comes to assemblages of different AI technologies and to future concepts of animalcomputer interaction that might enable non-human animals and artificial intelligence to cooperate creatively.
2nd Conference on AI Music Creativity, 2021
This paper presents an ongoing interdisciplinary research project that deals with free improvisat... more This paper presents an ongoing interdisciplinary research project that deals with free improvisation and human-machine interaction, involving a digital player piano and other musical instruments. Various technical concepts are developed by student participants in the project and continuously evaluated in artistic performances. Our goal is to explore methods for co-creative collaborations with artificial intelligences embodied in the player piano, enabling it to act as an equal improvisation partner for human musicians.
Book Chapters by Martin Ullrich
Kombinatorik und Spiel. Wege musikalischen Denkens (Festschrift für Stefan Prey), 2022
Das Anthropozän als gegenwärtiges Erdzeitalter ist (vgl. die sich seit dem Jahr 2000 vielfältig v... more Das Anthropozän als gegenwärtiges Erdzeitalter ist (vgl. die sich seit dem Jahr 2000 vielfältig verzwei-gende diskursive Entwicklung in natur- wie in gesellschafts- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen) von einer um-fassenden Beeinflussung planetarer Entwicklungen durch Humanaktivitäten gekennzeichnet. Damit einher gehen be-unruhigende und bedrohliche Begleiterscheinungen wie der Klimawandel, das Massenaussterben zahlreicher Arten, die Verschmutzung der Ozeane, aber auch das akustische Einwirken auf zahlreiche Tierarten durch menschenge-machte Geräusche. Um Perspektiven einer weiteren Öffnung musiktheoretischer Fachlichkeit zur inter- und trans-disziplinären Anthropozändiskussion zu eröffnen, werden zwei Vorschläge unterbreitet, mit welchen Methoden und anhand welcher Gegenstände Musiktheorien sich posthumanistisch weiterentwickeln könnten. Der erste Vorschlag ist, Musikkulturen nichtmenschlicher Tiere im Sinne des »Animal Turn« in musiktheoretischen Diskursen zu berück-sichtigen. Vor allem dann, wenn Musiktheorie als empirisch exploratives Projekt des Verstehens und Systematisie-rens von musikalischer Praxis verstanden wird, bietet sich in den Gesängen und Instrumentallauten zahlreicher nicht-menschlicher Tiere ein reiches Untersuchungsfeld. Vorschlag zwei ist, die weitere Entwicklung künstlicher Kreativität musiktheoretisch zu begleiten. Insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund des Fortschritts im Bereich des Maschinellen Ler-nens ist das Potenzial für eine kreative Handlungsmacht (›Agency‹) von Künstlicher Intelligenz gegeben. Aus der Er-weiterung der musiktheoretischen Perspektive, hin zur posthumanistisch informierten Berücksichtigung tierlicher und künstlicher Musikkreation, ergeben sich weitere Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten. Durch die Dekonstruktion anthro-pozentrischer Vorannahmen in der Musiktheorie und die Entwicklung von Theorien zu mehr-als-menschlichen Musi-ken kann Musiktheorie außerdem zusätzliche gesellschaftliche Relevanz erlangen.
Cultural Animal Studies, 2019
Animals and Their People: Connecting East and West in Cultural Animal Studies, 2018
Musicology as an academic field is no longer a monolithic entity, but has over the course of the ... more Musicology as an academic field is no longer a monolithic entity, but has over the course of the 20th century developed in an array of differentiated sub-disciplines. The interdisciplinary approach of human-animal studies and its interest in the phenomena of animal music and interspecies art now has to find an academic position that remains distinct from, while drawing from philology, ethnomusicology, biomusicology, and sound studies. Nonhuman animals play a catalytic role for the development of human music. At the same time, the phenomenon of animal music constitutes an epistemological challenge. The rediscovery of music in the last years by the sciences and especially the contributions of cognitive ethology, neurobiology, and evolutionary psychology to the area are of high interest. Nevertheless, classical musicology as part of the humanities should not simply be replaced by purely scientific approaches. The potential of human-animal studies as a bridge between cultural studies and natural sciences is focused paradigmatically when nonhuman music is concerned. The article sketches an epistemological framework for an interdisciplinary musicology of animal music and discusses a variety of methods from several academic disciplines for animal studies in music.
Tiere - Texte - Transformationen. Kritische Perspektiven der Human-Animal Studies, Nov 2015
Lexikon der Mensch-Tier-Beziehungen, 2015
Lexikon der Mensch-Tier-Beziehungen
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Papers by Martin Ullrich
Book Chapters by Martin Ullrich
Dominique Lestel – Myśleć sierścią. Zwierzęcość w perspektywie drugoosobowej
Monika Żółkoś – Mikro-formy i makro-lęki. Owady jako wyzwanie dla animal studies
Anna Barcz – Portrety ludzi i zwierząt a zagadnienie podobieństwa po Darwinie
Steve Baker – Sztuka współczesna i prawa zwierząt
Jessica Ullrich – Strefy kontaktu. Spotkanie psa i człowieka ( Psio-ludzkie metamorfozy w sztuce współczesnej)
Izabela Kowalczyk – Pułapki posthumanizmu – w kontekście użycia zwierząt przez sztukę
Dorota Łagodzka – Wystawy sztuki zwierzęcej w Polsce od końca lat dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku do dziś
Aleksander Nawarecki – Zoofilologia pod auspicjami augurów
Anna Łagodzka – Zezwierzęcenie, zwierzątko i animalizacja języka
Martin Ullrich – Między filologią a biologią. Muzyka zwierząt z epistemologicznej i metodologicznej perspektywy
Robert Mckay – Czytając mięso. Literacka polityka gatunkowa w powieści Michela Fabera Pod skórą
Justyna Tymieniecka-Suchanek – Trzeba (za)bić to zwierzę… Homo crudelis w rosyjskiej publicystyce początku XX wieku
Anita Jarzyna – Herezje: odzyskiwanie wrażliwości (Tadeusz Nowak, Jerzy Nowosielski)