Species (2004) (Master's Thesis)

Species, a multichannel composition for fixed media, makes use of strictly synthetic, that is, non real world sounds. Developed and composed during Spring 2004, all aspects of the work are in some way organized according to John Conway's famous "Game of Life" algorithm, from simple variations in tone color to complex motions of sound through the multichannel listening environment. The work's title refers to the system of artificial "genetics" developed by the composer as an adaptation to the Game of Life's rule set, allowing for each sound event, however long or brief in duration, to contain a complete set of traits or genes which define its musical characteristics. These traits are passed among generations, shared within populations, and occasionally even mutated as the Game of Life proceeds. The musical results include slowly changing drones, rich, lushly moving harmonies, and collections of tiny sound events rushing around the listening space.

The simple rules of the "Game of Life," as designed by John Conway in 1970 are as follows: A two dimensional grid contains "cells" which may be either living or dead. In the next generation, a dead cell will become living if exactly three of its neighboring cells are currently living. A living cell will die from overcrowding if more than three neighboring cells are living, or from isolation if fewer than two neighboring cells are living. Generations proceed to either a finite number or infinitely.

• View the complete descriptive paper (.pdf).

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