PRiSM Blog

Welcome to the PRiSM Blog

A place for reflective pieces by members of the PRiSM team, associated members and invited guest contributors.

Bury Me Deep

Dr Sam Salem charts his collaboration with trombonist Weston Olencki on creating Bury Me Deep (2022), exploring neural synthesis, psychogeography, and the post-industrial.

Art-making through Adaptive Mesh Refinement Algorithms

PRiSM Scientist in Residence Patrick Sanan discusses the creative use of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms in the process of making a new audio-visual installation.

Norrisette and Not-Norrisette

Anna Appleby discusses her work using PRiSM SampleRNN, both as a composer of contemporary classical music and as her electronic pop music alter-ego, ‘Norrisette’.

Sounds from the Funhouse Machine: AI in Composition

RNCM PRiSM Artist & Producer in Residence Zakiya Leeming traces along a 4-work journey of exploring PRiSM SampleRNN and audio neural synthesis.

CoMA Manchester: ‘Streaming Blue’ Continued

Ellen Sargen & Bofan Ma reflect on the ‘Composing for CoMA Manchester’ project, with new music written by RNCM students Helena Zyskowska, Tanguy Pocquet & Alex Chapman.

Datasounds: When Music Meets AI

Through a recently released documentary film, members of the AHRC-funded Datasounds, Datasets and Datasense research network share their insight on data & music creativity.

Prototype Music | Saxophone & PRiSM Musical Gesture Recogniser (MGR)

Amidst ongoing iterations of the PRiSM MGR technology, Robert Laidlow reflects on a prototype project in early 2023 with saxophonist David Zucchi & RNCM composers Songhao Yao & Eve Vickers.

the room where the organ was

Multi-disciplinary artist Mark Fell reflects on his collaboration with RNCM student composers on constructing an installation for the RNCM’s flagship music technology resource Studio 8.

Liquid Music

RNCM composition student Alexander Mouzouri discusses his collaboration with Dr Timothy Foster (University of Manchester) & its resultant piece Parallaxenreisen (2023).

THIS IS FINE: Spectres, Spectralism and Somnambulance

Dr Sam Salem discusses his first work using PRiSM SampleRNN, THIS IS FINE, through dialogues with cellist Alice Purton & re-appropriating questions of Britishness, identity & interference.

George Lewis: Voyaging Towards Forager

Composer Professor George Lewis reflects on his year-long residency at PRiSM and the resultant work Forager (feat. the new PRiSM Music Gesture Recognition app).

In Praise of Good Collaborators (or, Writing Poetry with AI)

RNCM PRiSM Writer in Residence Leo Mercer reflects on his residency since 2021, and the resulting mock-up app ‘Poetry 2099: 10 21st Century Poets’.

Infinite Remix

PRiSM Writer in Residence Abi Bliss reflects on her first-hand experience of working within the PRiSM community & introduces her new podcast: Infinite Remix.

Animating Xenakis’ ‘Nomos Alpha’

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reflects on animating the mathematics within Xenakis’ Nomos Alpha (1965) in celebration of the centenary of the iconic greek composer.

Four Musical Proofs and a Conjecture

Composer Emily Howard in conversation with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy on their joint exploration of different forms of mathematical proof through the creation of music.

Outlier for Distractfold, Luke Moore, Elle Chante and AI

PRiSM Doctoral Researcher Megan Steinberg discusses her upcoming project ‘Outlier’, to be premiered at PRiSM Future Music #4 on 25 October 2022.

Dynamical Systems Conversation

Simon Knighton in conversation with Professor Lasse Rempe ahead of a Dynamical Systems-inspired concert to be taking place on 22 September 2022.

Oracle: The Dreaming Species

Artist Melanie Wilson reflects on the first stage of her ongoing collaboration with PRiSM & Fuel, as part of Sound and Music’s New Voices programme.

Music, Geometry, Space

PRiSM Doctoral Researcher Robert Laidlow reflects on his recent experience curating a BBC Radio 3 broadcast for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

AURA MACHINE

Vicky Clarke, Artist in Residence with NOVARS, shares insights into creation of the neural synthesis work, AURA MACHINE.

The Written Word in a Spatial Medium

An update from 2021 PRiSM Writer in Residence Leo Mercer.

Music Responding to Environmental Crises

Project update PRiSM Scientist in Residence 2021, Rose Pritchard.

Experiencing AI in Music

Experiencing AI in Music, by PRiSM Writer in Residence Abi Bliss.

Local Refinement in Computational Science and Music

Local Refinement in Computational Science and Music by Patrick Sanan, PRiSM Scientist in Residence 2021

AI Text Scores

Launch of The Text Score Dataset 1.0 by Jennifer Walshe, Darmstadt 3 August 2021.

José del Avellanal Carreño writes about his collaboration with BCMG clarinetist, Oliver Janes, ‘speak, sing…’ incorporating material created using the machine learning software PRiSM SampleRNN to manipulate improvisations provided by Oliver.

[U]nusual [m]etals

Professor of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool Mathias Brust and PRiSM Doctoral researcher and Composer Zakiya Leeming talk about their collaboration [U]nusual [m]etals.

Escape! and the PRiSM Oscillator

Christopher Melen and Nina Whiteman write about their collaboration on the new PRiSM Oscillator app for Nina’s composition Escape!

offset iii – what makes human human?

PRiSM Doctoral Researcher Bofan Ma talks about his collaboration with Professor Keeley Crockett, Professor in Computational Intelligence at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the resulting project offset iii.

Orchestral Geometries

Composer Emily Howard shares some thoughts about the creative process behind the series Orchestral Geometries.

PRiSM 8 Cubed 2020

PRiSM 8³ | 8 composers x 8 scientists x 8 performers

People & Things by Jennifer Walshe

A text which navigates the blurry boundaries between humans and the objects they deem sentient.

music | play | maths

PRiSM Directors composer Emily Howard and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy lead students in a day of mathematical-musical exploration at the RNCM.

AI Creativity and the Challenge of Time

A new piece written especially for PRiSM Future Music 2# by PRiSM Co-Director Marcus du Sautoy.

Composing in the Age of Zoom

Sam Salem introduces three new works commissioned for PRiSM Future Music #2 by RNCM Composition students Ellen Sargen, Fraz Ireland and Bofan Ma.

Generating the Future

Join PRiSM’s Doctoral Researcher Robert Laidlow for a presentation exploring the creative uses of artificial intelligence, featuring quartet performances from members of the BBC Philharmonic and RNCM soloist Vanessa Guinadi.

A Psychogeography of Latent Space

An artistic reflection on composition in the age of Machine Learning, by Dr Sam Salem.

Imagining the Analytical Engine – The Creative Process

Ada Lovelace – Imagining the Analytical Engine. BBC Radio 3’s Andrew McGregor, interviews the featured composers about their compositional process and the augmented and new instruments used.

A Short History of Neural Synthesis

In this first instalment on AI and music, Dr Christopher Melen, PRiSM’s Research Software Engineer, introduces neural synthesis, an exciting technique that features in the artistic work of the PRiSM team.

Inventing the Lovelace Engine

The Composer and Inventor behind the Lovelace Engine take you from brainstorm to stage.

The Raft Breaks

It begins with a single exhalation and ends in the midst of an uncanny, slow, violent storm.

David De Roure

Meet the PRiSM Technical Director David De Roure, exploring the intersection of maths, algorithms and music.