LAN Game: Space, density, will, self-organization within human - machine interaction in a live electronics work

In this work we address human - machine interaction and their cooperative effort towards the real-time creation and performance of 'LAN Game' - an open-form live electroacoustic music work. What is "live" in an electroacoustic work? How can human and artificial-(ly intelligent? cyclothymic?) agents coexist and interact with each other? These are the basic questions set by the work, which is created by an interactive computer application and is based on the real-time creation of sonic events that are produced by the relationship between two human and two artificial agents. The two artificial agents, connected via a local area network, produce micro-sounds which combined into sonic clouds of variable density and spatial distribution, compose the microstructural elements of the work as a unified sonic environment. The structural evolution of this 'soundscape' in time is dependent on the constant dialectic relationships between the two artificial agents as well as each one's relationship with its own 'paired' human-agent from whom they receive data through a graphical user interface. This relationship is realizing a goal-achieving routine, in respect to the density of the produced sound events and their spatial distribution as well as a response index towards achieving this goal. Target values for these goals are set and re-evaluated in real-time during every live performance of the work, by means of machine learning techniques based on data from past performances. The artificial agents' 'idiosyncrasies' and thus each one's capacity towards achieving the goals is influenced by the paired human-agent who 'trains' her artificial partner in real-time giving it the confidence (or not) to take a leading role in the evolution of the work.