What is Whole-Play?

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And why is there a whole category in the blog for it? Whole-Play was born on 18 Nov 07, but the seed were planted way before, probably around 1990. But WHAT is it?

It's a project, an experiment and an adventure. It's a journey to create a music project that combines programming, composing and improvising. The idea was waiting in my mind for years until I met Chuck, a fascinating (and kind of funny) programming language. That did it: I had the tools to develop Whole-Play, I had the time, and I had the passion to go for it.

And yes, I can be more specific. :) The goal is to create a music program (a set of programs in fact) that can improvise with an also improvised live performance, real-time. The project is still in its infancy, but eventually the computer will be able to recognize many musical parameters in the human playing, such as beat, time signature, harmony, chords and motifs. Based on these parameters, it will generate a creative response, which can be very varied in nature, and more or less tightly coupled with the human improvisation. This model allows for some very interesting interactions between human and computer, which ultimately is what motivates me to develop this project.

In this category of the blog I'll rave about my progress and fantasies with Whole-Play, and also I'll include some samples as the project matures. Hopefully there will be some people who like the project and will want to share their thoughts on it, which I would enjoy a lot.

Posted in: English, Whole-Play
Tags: chuck, music, programming