Anna Xambó

De Montfort University | DMU · Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute for Sonic Creativity

This article reports on a study to identify the new sonic challenges and opportunities for live coders, computer musicians and sonic artists using MIRLCa, a live-coding environment powered by an artificial intelligence (AI) system. MIRLCa works as a customisable worldwide sampler, with sounds retrieved from the collective online Creative Commons (C...

In March of 2022, LivecoderA, a new live coding community came into being, coalescing around the need to recognize a specific cohort of live coders who identify as women. The group is inherently feminist and intersectional, and its creation was motivated by many desires. Among them: solidarity and visibility, to be counted as sisters, and to reflec...

"Ear to Waipapa Taumata Rau" is a remote live coding performance for two laptop performers distributed in two different continents exploring the sonic components of Waipapa Taumata Rau. The performance is based on processing sound generated by crowdsourced and personal site-specific field recordings from the conference location featuring field reco...

shreds is a collaborative live coding performance by electronic music duo Pulso (Gerard Roma and Anna Xambó). In this performance, the duo will use a self-built live-coding environment in JavaScript that shows two code editors, one for each performer. The two performers will manipulate short sound samples in sync using a highly constrained live cod...

A review of past and present perspectives on and approaches to the use of virtual agents in live coding contexts provides insight into the potential for the use of AI in the field, as well as highlighting practices that point to future directions. Full text available from: https://econtact.ca/21_1/xambosedo_agents.html

One of the consequences of the pandemic has been the potential to embrace hybrid support for different human group activities, including music performance, resulting in accommodating a wider range of situations. We believe that we are barely at the tip of the iceberg and that we can explore further the possibilities of the medium by promoting a mor...

While audio data play an increasingly central role in computer-based music production, interaction with large sound collections in most available music creation and production environments is very often still limited to scrolling long lists of file names. This paper describes a general framework for devising interactive applications based on the co...

Full text available from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/abs/thor-magnusson-sonic-writing-technologies-of-material-symbolic-and-signal-inscriptions-new-york-bloomsbury-academic-2019-isbn-9781501313851-doi-httpsdoiorg1050409781501313899/24109B449170606E7CC4A55D2280BDAF

This performance combines machine learning algorithms with music information retrieval techniques to retrieve crowdsourced sounds from the online database Freesound.org, which results in a sound-based music style. The use of a virtual companion complements a human live coder in her/his practice. The core themes of legibility , agency and negotiabil...

This live coding performance is a collaboration between a human live coder and a virtual agent (VA). MIRLCa is a self-built SuperCollider extension and a follow-up of the also self-built SuperCollider extension MIRLC. The system combines machine learning algorithms with music information retrieval techniques to retrieve crowdsourced sounds from the...

The use of crowdsourced sounds in live coding can be seen as an example of asynchronous collaboration. It is not uncommon for crowdsourced databases to return unexpected results to the queries submitted by a user. In such a situation, a live coder is likely to require some degree of additional filtering to adapt the results to her/his musical inten...

In this article, we discuss the challenges and opportunities provided by teaching programming using web audio technologies and adopting a team-based learning (TBL) approach among a mix of co-located and remote students, mostly novices in programming. The course has been designed for cross-campus teaching and teamwork, in alignment with the two-city...

This chapter examines how students in a two-campus, cross-disciplinary program in Music, Communication and Technology (MCT) experience the sense of presence of peer students and teachers, some physically co-localized while others are present via an audiovisual communications system. The chapter starts by briefly delineating the MCT program, the aud...

AI and live coding has been little explored. This article contributes with a short review of different perspectives of using virtual agents in the practice of live coding looking at past and present as well as pointing to future directions. Article published in eContact! 21.1 available from https://econtact.ca/21_1/xambosedo_agents.html

With the development of web audio standards, it has quickly become technically easy to develop and deploy software for inviting audiences to participate in musical performances using their mobile phones. Thus, a new audience-centric musical genre has emerged, which aligns with artistic manifestations where there is an explicit inclusion of the publ...

With the aim of making women's work in music technology more visible, the organization Women Nordic Music Technology (WoNoMute) has originated conversations with expert women in the form of seminar talks and interviews that are archived digitally. This paper analyses the first seven interviews and seminar talks with women from this online archive u...

In this paper, we present a course of audio programming using web audio technologies addressed to an interdisciplinary group of master students who are mostly novices in programming. This course is held in two connected university campuses through a portal space and the students are expected to work in cross-campus teams. The course promotes both i...

With the advent of online audio resources and web technologies, digital tools for sound designers and music producers are changing. The Internet provides access to hundreds of thousands of digital audio files, from human- and nature-related environmental sounds, instrument samples and sound effects, to produced songs ready to use in media productio...

In this paper, we present a workshop of physical computing applied to NIME design based on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education. The workshop is designed for master students with multidisciplinary backgrounds. They are encouraged to work in teams from two university campuses remotely connected through a portal s...

Music information retrieval (MIR) has a great potential in musical live coding because it can help the musician–programmer to make musical decisions based on audio content analysis and explore new sonorities by means of MIR techniques. The use of real-time MIR techniques can be computationally demanding and thus they have been rarely used in live c...

A common problem in music education is finding varied and engaging material that is suitable for practising a specific musical concept or technique. At the same time, a number of large music collections are available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence (e.g. Jamendo, ccMixter), but their potential is largely untapped because of the relative obscu...

Research in audio analysis has provided a large number of ways to describe audio recordings, which can be used for enhancing their visual representation in web applications. In this paper we present fav.js, a Javascript library for flexible visualization of audio descriptors. We explain the proposed design and demonstrate its potential for web audi...

Nowadays, a number of online music databases are available under Creative Commons licenses (e.g. Jamendo, ccMixter). Typically, it is possible to navigate and play their content through search interfaces based on metadata and file-wide tags. However, because this music is largely unknown, additional methods of discovery need to be explored. In this...

With the widespread use of smartphones that have multiple sensors and sound processing capabilities, there is a great potential for increased audience participation in music performances. This paper proposes a framework for participatory mobile music based on mapping arbitrary accelerometer gestures to sound synthesizers. The authors describe Handw...

The recent increase in the accessibility and size of personal and crowd-sourced digital sound collections brought about a valuable resource for music creation. Finding and retrieving relevant sounds in performance leads to challenges that can be approached using music information retrieval (MIR). In this paper, we explore the use of MIR to retrieve...

In recent years, there has been an increase in awareness of the underrepresentation of women in the sound and music computing fields. The New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference is not an exception, with a number of open questions remaining around the issue. In the present paper, we study the presence and evolution over time of wome...

The recent increase in the accessibility and size of personal and crowdsourced digital sound collections brought about a valuable resource for music creation. Finding and retrieving relevant sounds in performance leads to challenges that can be approached using music information retrieval (MIR). In this paper, we explore the use of MIR to retrieve...

Collaborative music live coding (CMLC) approaches the music improvisation practice of live coding in collaboration. In network music, co-located and remote interactions are possible, and communication is typically supported by the use of a chat window. However, paying attention to simultaneous multi-user actions, such as chat texts and code, can be...

Live performances which involve digital technology often strive toward clear correspondences between distinct media modes, particularly those works which combine audio and video. Often, the process of creating and executing such performances involves mapping schemes which are encased within the digital system, producing content which is tightly syn...

This paper presents initial steps towards the design of an embedded system for body-centric sonic performance. The proposed prototyping system allows performers to manipulate sounds through gestural interactions captured by textile wearable sensors. The e-textile sensor data control, in real-time, audio synthesis algorithms working with content fro...

This paper describes handwaving, a system for participatory mobile music based on accelerometer gesture recognition. The core of the system is a library that can be used to recognize and map arbitrary gestures to sound synthesizers. Such gestures can be quickly learnt by mobile phone users in order to produce sounds in a musical context. The system...

Co-located collaborative live coding is a potential approach to network music and to the music improvisation practice known as live coding. A common strategy to support communication between live coders and the audience is the use of a chat window. However , paying attention to simultaneous multiuser actions, such as chat texts and code, can be too...

This performance invites the audience to participate in an immersive experience using their mobile devices. The aim is at capturing their actions on a digital painting inspired by Jackson Pollock's action painting technique. The audience is connected to a wireless network and a Web Audio application that recognizes a number of gestures through the...

Co-creation between a human agent (HA) and a virtual agent (VA) is an approach to collaboration that has been explored in different creative domains, particulary in computer music. With a few exceptions, there is little research on the use of virtual agents in collaborative music live coding (CMLC), a network music improvi-sational practice. This p...

In this paper we present a preliminary design and initial assessment of a computational musical tabletop exhibit for children and teenagers at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). We explore how participatory workshops can promote hands-on learning of computational concepts through making music. We also use a hands-on approach to assess informal le...

An approach to teaching computer science (CS) in high-schools is using EarSketch, a free online tool for teaching CS concepts while making music. In this demonstration we present the potential of teaching music information retrieval (MIR) concepts using EarSketch. The aim is twofold: to discuss the benefits of introducing MIR concepts in the classr...

The turn to the body in social sciences has intensified the gaze of qualitative research on bodily matters and embodied relations and made the body a significant object of reflection, bringing new focus on and debates around the direction of methodological advances. This article contributes to these debates in three ways: 1) we explore the potentia...

Demand for computer scientists is robust, but the pipeline for producing them is not. US universities are only meeting about a third of demand for computer scientists, and recruiting a diverse student body is a struggle; the number of women in computer science has actually declined in the past decade. To help change the perception of the computing...

This article presents a video-based field study of the Reactable, a tabletop tangible user interface (TUI) for music performance, in a hands-on science centre. The goal was to investigate visitors’ social interactions in a public setting. We describe liminality and cross-group interaction, both synchronous with fluid transitions and overlaps in use...

This paper focuses on the potential of collaborative live coding in educational settings. In particular, it draws from our experience with EarSketch, a free online platform for algorithmic composition and computational music remixing that allows students to learn Computer Science Principles (CSP) by making music using either Python or JavaScript. W...

In this paper we examine methodological innovation in the social sciences through a focus on researching the body in digital environments. There are two strands to our argument as to why this is a useful site to explore methodological innovation in the social sciences. First, researching the body in digital environments places new methodological de...

The EarSketch computer science learning environment and curriculum (http://earsketch.gatech.edu) seeks to increase and broaden participation in computing using a STEAM (STEM + Arts) approach. EarSketch creates an authentic learning environment in that it is both personally meaningful and industry relevant in terms of its STEM component (computing)...

Co-located tabletop tangible user interfaces (TUIs) for music performance are known for promoting multi-player collaboration with a shared interface, yet it is still unclear how to best support the awareness of the workspace in terms of understanding individual actions and the other group members actions, in parallel. In this paper, we investigate...

The third wave in HCI reveals how embodiment matters in post-WIMP computing systems. Yet it is still unclear what methods provide effective insight into the nature of embodiment in HCI in relation to both design and use. This paper presents work in progress on MIDAS, a cross-disciplinary methodological research project on embodiment and technology...

There has been little research on how interactions with tabletop and Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) by groups of users change over time. In this article, we investigate the challenges and opportunities of a tabletop tangible interface based on constructive building blocks. We describe a long-term lab study of groups of expert musicians improvising...

Preference elicitation is a challenging fundamental problem when designing recommender systems. In the present work we propose a content-based technique to automatically generate a semantic representation of the user’s musical preferences directly from audio. Starting from an explicit set of music tracks provided by the user as evidence of his/her...

There is little evaluation of musical tabletops for music performance, and current approaches tend to have little consideration of social interaction. However, in collaborative settings, social aspects such as coordination, communication, or musical engagement between collaborators are fundamental for a successful performance. After an overview of...

This position paper summarises some themes encountered when analysing video data in the context of music performance with interactive tabletops. It presents methodological approaches and coding schemes used for a set of experiments on musical tabletops and collaboration. Finally, it outlines an initial taxonomy based on the outcomes of the projects...

Since the development of sound recording technologies, the palette of sound timbres available for music creation was extended way beyond traditional musical instruments. The organization and categorization of timbre has been a common endeavor. The availability of large databases of sound clips provides an opportunity for obtaining datadriven timbre...

The amount of digital music has grown unprecedentedly during the last years and requires the development of effective methods for search and retrieval. In particular, content-based preference elicitation for music recommendation is a challenging problem that is effectively addressed in this paper. We present a system which automatically generates r...

With the advent of tabletop interaction, collaborative activities are better supported than they are on single-user PCs because there exists a physical shareable space, and interaction with digital data is more embodied and social. In sound and music computing, collaborative music making has traditionally been done using interconnected networks, bu...

In this paper we give an analysis of the literature on a set of problems that can arise when undertaking the interaction design of multi-touch applications for collaborative real-time music activities, which are designed for multi-touch technologies (e.g. smartphones, tablets, interactive tabletops, among others). Each problem is described, and a c...

In this paper, we describe a playable musical interface for tablets and multi-touch tables. The interface is a generalized keyboard, inspired by the Thummer, and consists of an array of virtual buttons. On a generalized keyboard, any given interval always has the same shape (and therefore fingering); furthermore, the fingering is consistent over a...

Hex Player poster. See associated paper for more details.

When electronic musicians compose collaboratively, they typically use their own single-user musical controllers. It may, therefore, be useful to develop novel controllers that support collaborative workflows and democratic principles. After describing the design principles for developing such controllers, we present TOUCHtr4ck, a prototype multi-to...

The music we like (i.e. our musical preferences) encodes and communicates key information about ourselves. Depicting such preferences in a condensed and easily understandable way is very appealing, especially considering the current trends in social network communication. In this paper we propose a method to automatically generate, given a provided...

A range of systems exist for collaborative music making on multi-touch surfaces. Some of them have been highly successful, but currently there is no systematic way of designing them, to maximise collaboration for a particular user group. We are particularly interested in systems that will engage novices and experts. We designed a simple application...

We present an audio waveform editor that can be operated in real time through a tabletop interface. The system combines multi-touch and tangible interaction techniques in order to implement the metaphor of a toolkit that allows direct manipulation of a sound sample. The resulting instrument is well suited for live performance based on evolving loop...

Obra en que se explican las herramientas para crear diseños estáticos o en movimiento con diversos programas de cómputo disponibles en el mercado para el diseño gráfico y de aplicaciones para web. Contenido: 1. El vector: Macromedia FreeHand; Ilustración en blanco y negro; 2. Ilustración en color; 3. Tipografía en gráficos vectoriales; 4. Pr...