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Collaborative Composition Dance Box

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Disclaimer: I'm a bit reticent about posting this as a separate idea, because I am so deeply indebted to Dog Ed's Collaborative Composition Jukebox for inspiration, modified by Mephista's suggestion that "your body should be involved." I think maybe it's just different enough to stand on its own, but if there's popular dissent, I'll repost it as an annotation to Dog Ed's idea.

Like Dog Ed's device, it's a music machine with an a.i. composing algorithm, stationed in a public place like a park.

Here's where it differs:

The machine has a sophisticated motion sensor, and automatically begins playing whenever someone passes by. It composes music that fits in with the person's motion, synching the beat and the "mood" to the person's pace, whether walking, jogging, hopping, bicycling, somersaulting, etc.

If the passer-by is aware enough to notice what's happening, he stops. The music stops, too, hanging on a suspended chord, awaiting the person's next move. After some experimentation, the "user" is now dancing away, but the more he puts into his dance, the more "dancey" the music gets.

A second person happens by. The music machine senses her, and alters the music to attract her into the dance, too.

Soon many people are all dancing together, and the music they're dancing to is being created by the combined inner joy of them all, as expressed by their dancing.

Man, I'd love to see something like that.

beauxeault, Jun 22 2001

The inspiration for this idea. http://www.halfbake...mposition_20Jukebox
Thanks, Dog Ed and Mephista. [beauxeault, Jun 22 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

David Rokeby: Very Nervous System http://www.interlog.com/~drokeby/vns.html
No AI involved, and no multiplayer stuff (that's all terribly WIBNI where we're trying to replace actual chemistry and familiarity between dancers with large amounts of technological handwaving), but the effect is roughly as you describe. [jutta, Jun 22 2001]

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       This is great! If you start to dance along with it then you could learn to vary the rhythm and tempo to create a composition, individual improv art on the spot.
Dog Ed, Jun 23 2001
  

       Halfbaked in science fiction, certainly -- I think "coley clubs" were in John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider" -- but I'd like to see a good implementation.
hob, Jun 23 2001
  
      
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