By David De Roure, Pip Willcox, Alan Chamberlain. Paper presented at the workshop "The Design of Future Music Technologies: ‘Sounding Out’ AI, Immersive Experiences & Brain Controlled Interfaces" held in conjunction with Audio Mostly 2018 (AM'18), September 12–14, 2018, Wrexham, UK. https://doi.org/10.1145/3243274.3275380

1. Lovelace’s Legacy
Creative Algorithmic Interventions
for Live Performance
David De Roure @dder
Pip Willcox @pipwillcox
Alan Chamberlain @Alan_yn_Aber

2. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-ada-lovelace.html

3. The daughter
Images
ByCreator:CharlesHayter(NationalPortraitGallery)[PublicdomainorPublicdomain],via
WikimediaCommons.
ByRichardWestall(died1836)[Publicdomain],viaWikimediaCommons.
Scannedfrom TheCalculatingPassionofAdaByron byJoanBaum.Originallyfromthe
Lovelace-ByronCollection. [Publicdomain],viaWikimediaCommons.
Mad, bad, and
dangerous to know
—Caroline Lamb
Mathematical,
methodical, and moral
—Annabella Byron
Science vs. Creativity?

4. Lovelace to Augustus De Morgan
Copyright.AllAdaLovelacemanuscriptimagesontheClayMathematicsInstitutewebsiteare
©2015TheLovelaceByronPapers,reproducedby permissionofPollingerLimited.
http://www.claymath.org/publications/ada-lovelaces-
mathematical-papers

5. http://blog.plan28.org/2014/11/babbages-language-of-thought.html
Printer design for the
Analytical Engine and
Difference Engine No.2

6. Lovelace translates and notates Menebrea
“Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched
sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were
susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might
compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of
complexity or extent.”
Photograph:PipWillcox,fromTaylor’sScientificMemoirsprovidedbyMagdalenCollegeLibrary

7. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/ada-lovelace-symposium-
celebrating-200-years-computer-visionary
Ada Lovelace Symposium
10–11 December 2015

8. Ada Lovelace: Notes and Numbers
“… the Mill has two 50 digit Ingress Axes to which arguments
are transferred, with the first Ingress Axis having an auxiliary
50 digit Primed Axis which receives the most significant 50
digits when a 100 digit number is divided by a number of up
to 50 digits. Results from an arithmetic operation appear on
the Mill's 50 digit Egress Axis, which is also accompanied by a
50 digit Primed axis which, in the case of division, receives the
quotient while the remainder appears on the main Egress
Axis. In addition, the Mill has a Run-up Lever which is
activated when exceptional conditions arise during an
arithmetic operation.”
John Walker https://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/

9. Ada Lovelace: Notes and Numbers all F4-A5 D1-C4
Fib 35 Theme (F4-A5)
Fib 35 Puffle (D1-C4)

10. Piano
Harp
Piano
Xylophone
Tuba
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
&
Fibonacci mod 35 ('Puffle')
PipWillcox
David De Roure
for Analytical Engine, Piano, Harp, andTuba
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12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_%28harpist%29
https://archive.org/details/minstrelsadieuto00thom2

13. 1
Harp
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14. http://numbersintonotes.net

15. Numbers Into Notes: the première
Photographs:DavidDeRoure
http://soundcloud.com/alain_du_norde/the-gift-
the-algorithm-beyond-autonomy-and-control

16. https://www.facebook.com/TyCerdd.org.uk/posts/1899721323444520
https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/newsroom/2018/03/12/science-music-brought-big-screen/

20. Music SOFA: An architecture for semantically informed recomposition of Digital Music
Objects, SAAM’2018, October 2018, Monterey, California USA

21. • Programmable circuit boards: Arduinos
• Replicating Numbers Into Notes Web app
• Controlled by co-creating participants
• Selecting and mapping a subset of notes
• Learning to suggest augmentations
Music engines
“The engine is capable, under certain
circumstances, of feeling about to
discover which of two or more possible
contingencies has occurred, and of then
shaping its future course accordingly.”
Photographs:DavidDeRoureandPipWillcox
Lovelace:

23. Material algorithms
USB
MIDI
• Hardware is a physical object
containing the algorithm
• Plugs in anywhere that
expects a MIDI keyboard
• Algorithm can be “gifted”
c = a + b;
if (c >= m) { c -= m; }
a = b;
b = c;

24. Wheatstone

26. J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
Sketch of design for a
needle telegraph with
3 independent needles
and 26 letters
DDeR
mid

27. Fibonacci
Theremin

29. Towards a hybrid instrument?

30. Creative Social Machines?

31. What would an algorithmic effects
pedal do?
(I have all the bits ready…)
Closing question

32. The explorer
“Those who have learned
to walk on the thresholds
of unknown worlds…may
then with the fair white
wings of Imagination hope
to sore further into the
unexplored amidst which
we live.”

33. This research is supported by the FAST project funded
by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EP/L019981/1)
Imagecredit:NewYorkPublicLibrary.[Publicdomain]
With particular thanks to:
• Graham Klyne
• Emily Howard
• Ursula Martin
• Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller
• Kevin Page
• Michelle Phillips
• John Pybus
• Lasse Rempe-Gillen
• Marcus du Sautoy
• David Weigl
Thank you