Journal article
Is this the code to joy?
Sunday times (London, England : 1931), pp.26-26
09 May 2013
Abstract
Report on music made via MRI scans of the brain. Eduardo Miranda, director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at the University of Plymouth, is interviewed about a project he led with Slawomir Nasuto of the Cybernetics Research Group at the University of Reading, in which three subjects - including a ballet dancer and a philosopher - listened to music by Beethoven while lying in an MRI scanner. Data on their responses to the music, indicated by neurological activity in different areas of the brain, was then fed into a computer program that rewrote the music in ways designed to appeal to each listener. Miranda finessed the results but they remained real reflections of individual predilections, holding out the prospect of software that could compose bespoke music to alter mood on demand. "Music happens up here" Miranda says, tapping his forehead. "We don't usually think of it this way, but it is a construction of the mind". The experiment demonstrated the uniqueness to each individual of the process of listening. For Miranda, who sees himself as a composer rather than a scientist, the aims are utilitarian rather than aesthetic. (Quotes from original text)
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Details
- Title
- Is this the code to joy?
- Creators
- Andrew Smith
- Publication Details
- Sunday times (London, England : 1931), pp.26-26
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- English and Philosophy
- Identifiers
- 991021013178304721