BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:AI and Music : Invention/Imitation DTSTART:20240517T183000 DTEND:20240517T203000 DTSTAMP:20260315T154120Z UID:145d69b67af531311b1be7deb4ebf78228a3322768287d9c5027854e CATEGORIES:Cultural events DESCRIPTION:Richard Rentsch\, José Miguel Fernández\nPianist and compose r Richard Rentsch plays a duet with a machine equipped with artificial int elligence. Developed by composer José Miguel Fernández at the IRCAM of P aris\, this machine runs on Somax2 software\, which enables it to respond by improvisation to the sounds and musical phrases played by the pianist. It will be making its first public appearance at EPFL.\n\nThis man/machine performance will look at invention versus imitation and simulation versus simulacra. It will be followed by a round-table discussion with the prota gonists\, guest researchers\, EPFL students and the public.\n\nVIDEO OF TH E EVENT:\n\n\nCOURSE OF THE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE:\nRichard Rentsch will pla y various pieces of free jazz and improvised music. Based on each piece\, the AI will react and propose a musical response. The two intelligences (h uman and machine) will then play together. Composer José-Miguel Fernánde z will occasionally guide the AI on rhythmic and harmonic matters.\n\nTHE ROUND TABLE :\nThis experiment\, the results of which we don't know in adv ance\, will be discussed and questioned in the second half of the evening by Richard Rentsch\, José-Miguel Fernández and the audience. This exchan ge will be enriched by contributions from guests from the fields of philos ophy and psychoanalysis\, and by students from the EPFL. Questions of inve ntion and imitation concern the musician as much as the AI. What will be e xamined are the possible interactions between two different intelligences. \n\nRound table guests:\n\n François Ansermet\, child psychiatrist and ps ychoanalyst\, honorary professor at the Universities of Lausanne and Genev a\n Franck Renucci\, honorary university professor of information and comm unication sciences\n Valeria Vianello Dri\, neuropsychiatrist\n Claude Wel scher\, philosopher\n\nQuestions raised :\n\n\n When are we imitating rath er than creating?\n Is creation a blank page or is it already a palimpsest page?\n A machine equipped with AI is never faced with a blank page\, sin ce it is nourished by the many references that go to make it up.\n Does th e AI-enabled machine necessarily have to be anthropomorphised?\n Is it not a new category of objects or things endowed with a certain form of animat ion?\n What about the body in artistic creation?\n Is an AI-powered machin e a new musical instrument? What is its nature? Is it contingent? Can it m odify itself?\n Is the machine merely an imitation or has it innovated dur ing the experiment?\n What is the difference between simulacra and simulat ion?\n Can the machine invent beyond the musical references it has been gi ven?\n\nThese questions (and others that may emerge) will be opened in a s pirit of curiosity and not judgement (for or against AI). We will be led t o discover the musical reactions of a machine\, which will ultimately open up wider questions such as: what is a human? what is intelligence ?\n\nRi chard Rentsch\nPianist and composer Richard Rentsch studied jazz at the Sw iss Jazz School in Berne. He is a graduate of the Dick Crove School of Mus ic in Los Angeles and the Conservatoire de Lausanne. At the Agalma Foundat ion in Geneva\, Richard Rentsch is responsible for creating and coordinati ng musical events combining music\, neuroscience and psychoanalysis. He is responsible for setting up and developing a network of musicians interest ed in the foundation's research projects. He is also involved in setting u p partnerships with contemporary scientific and artistic institutions such as IRCAM in Paris. He has directed scientific-musical projects on creativ e processes at the Verbier Music Festival\, the Montreux Jazz Festival\, t he Swiss Institute in Rome and CERN. After Music Art Sculpt\, a musical an d visual project created at EPFL in December 2022\, pianist-composer Richa rd Rentsch returns to the campus with this new event that questions creati vity.\n\nJosé-Miguel Fernández\nJosé-Miguel Fernández studied music an d composition at the University of Chile and at the Laboratory for Musical Research and Production (LIPM) in Buenos Aires\, Argentina. He then studi ed composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de D anse in Lyon and took part in the IRCAM composition course. He composes in strumental\, electroacoustic and mixed music. He has given concerts of mix ed and electroacoustic music at a number of festivals. He was selected for the Bourges international electroacoustic music competition (2000) and is a winner of the Grame-EOC international composition competition in Lyon ( 2008) and the Giga Hertz Award at the ZKM in Germany (2010). In 2014\, he was selected by IRCAM to follow the artistic research residency programme on interaction in mixed music. His works are premiered all over the world at events such as the Journées Grame\, the Biennale Musique en Scène in Lyon\, Archipel in Geneva\, Wasserspeicher in Berlin\, Fabbrica Europa in Florence\, EMS in Shanghai\, Imatronic at the ZKM in Karlsruhe\, RomaEurop a in Rome\, at the Traiettorie festival in Parma\, and at the Bendigo Inte rnational Festival of Exploratory Music in Australia.\nIn 2023\, José-Mig uel Fernández defended his doctoral thesis in music (research and composi tion). Entitled Vers un système unifié d'interaction et de synchronisati on en composition électroacoustique et mixte: les partitions électroniqu es centralisées (Towards a unified system of interaction and synchronisat ion in electroacoustic and mixed composition: centralised electronic score s)\, this research aims to develop a notion of score that enables the defi nition and general control of all electronic\, interaction and synchronisa tion processes within a single environment\, by integrating musical\, gest ural and visual events. His research focuses on sound spatialisation\, the fine writing of electronics (in order to achieve the same degree of preci sion in the notation of electronics as in that of instrumental music)\, an d the search for new tools for the creation of mixed and electroacoustic m usic.\n \n\n PRACTICAL INFORMATION :\n Duration of performance: 35 minute s\n Duration of discussion: 75 minutes\n Free admission\n \n Our partners: \n Fondation Agalma\, Genève\n IRCAM\, Paris\n Boulard\, Morges\n\n\n\n\n \n LOCATION:Forum du RLC https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==RLC%20E1%20240 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR