2025 Theses Doctoral

A Thousand Ecologies of Improvisation: Cybernetic Listening, Auto-Cybernetization and the Decentering of Technology

Hein, Nicola Leonard

This dissertation investigates the musical performance and co-composition of human and machine agents. Specifically, it examines the concepts of listening, agency, and musical identity that are integral to this practice. To theorise these conceptual frameworks, I engage with discussions of improvisation, cybernetic listening, auto-cybernetization, ecology, and technology.

I aim to demonstrate the connections between the concepts of agency, listening, identity, and persona in the context of musical agent systems and explore emerging ecologies in human-machine improvisation. In fact, I will argue for the centrality of exploring ecologies as a central concern of my artistic and research methods. By establishing these connections, I aim to demonstrate the philosophical implications (Hein 2018; Hein 2020) of working with musical agent systems and to develop a framework for understanding these practices in computer music as a kind of philosophical experiment (cf. Hein 2018; Hein 2020) that investigates concepts of the human and technology. Hence, working with musical agent systems develops a strong self-reflexive aspect, which utilizes musical practice as a form of philosophical meditation about these issues.

Specifically, I theorize practices in human-machine improvisation that focus on hybridizing human and machine agency by using machine learning to train musical agent systems on the musical vocabulary of human musical performers, and explore the creative and philosophical potentials of situating these systems as an ecological practice.

I will theorize this practice by first establishing a cybernetic framework for the involved concept of listening (cybernetic listening) and the emergent forms of musical agency. The conceptual background of cybernetics, as it is relevant to the practice of programming and performing with improvising machines, will be introduced into the discussion of agency, while simultaneously emphasizing the agency of listening and the ecologies of listening within and in interaction with improvising musical agent systems, as well as in my practice of human-machine improvisation.

Following this, I develop the concept of auto-cybernetization to conceptualize and historicize this approach within the contexts of jazz and current developments in computer science and music technology. The core of my analytical concerns deals with my own creative practice, in context with the practice of other artists, that engage in the cybernetic interpretation and transduction of established musical “languages,” as well as embodied modes of performance by their creators, who assume a dual role as both performers of their musical languages on (electro)acoustic instruments and as programmers. The development and use of these systems in live performances is the relevant field of musical practice that will be analyzed in this dissertation.

The final part of this dissertation will focus on concepts in the philosophy of technology, AI, and ecology, and attempt to read these concepts through the lens of human-machine improvisation. Understanding human-machine improvisation as an ecological practice will offer a decentering of the concept of technology, as well as concepts of the social, the human, and music.

I will utilize my own artistic practice, as well as the musical practices and projects of other artists, to develop my theory. Specific steps in my argument will focus on different aspects of artistic practice, utilizing various artistic works of mine and others to exemplify and substantiate my ideas within the context of the creative practice.

My discussion of the creative practice is informed by a discussion of its philosophical implications for conceptions of technology, cybernetics, self, agency, persona, and music. Ultimately, the goal is to develop an intellectual framework for the artistic practice of human-machine improvisation, one that can theorize its contribution to current discussions in computer music, the philosophy of technology, ecology, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence.