Random Sound, Evolving, Mixing to Compose

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/august/butterfly-sounds.html
This piece is an evolving sound composition created by a class I was in Junior year. The Phipps hosts a butterfly bloom every year, and my class wrote generative music compositions within the space. The class split into about 10 teams, and wrote a sound piece using random event triggers to play an ambient melody.

In this project, randomness played a crucial role for the experience within the space. One lesson we learned about in the class is that predicable/repetitive beats can impose undesired movement within a space. We used the randomness to unify each teams individual compositions. Because there was no specific beat to the songs, a pleasant tone was set in the garden space.

Another concept we learned about randomness is evolution. If a framework for a musical or artistic piece is designed to allow for chance, the experience is always different. A viewer can explore the space on their own time, without fear of missing out.