Soundwalking Deep Latent Spaces

Hugo Scurto (1, 2, 3) , Ludmila Postel (4)

1 École universitaire de recherche ArTeC
2 Scènes du monde, création, savoirs critiques
3 EnsAD - École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
4 ESA AIX - Ecole supérieure d'Art d'Aix en Provence

This paper relates an early art-research collaboration between two practitioners in machine learning and virtual worlds toward new embodied musical experiences of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Instead of a digital music instrument or a music-generating agent, we propose to craft a soundwalk experience where a human person moves through a three-dimensional virtual world to explore a latent sound space generated by deep learning. We report on the diffractive prototyping and iterative crafting of three such soundwalks through/out deep latent spaces, using nn∼ and New Atlantis as computational platforms for AI audio processing and virtual world experimentation. We share critical perspectives emerging from our latent soundwalking practice, with the hope that they contribute to ongoing communitywide reflections toward new AI for musical expression.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Soundwalk; Generative Deep Learning; Virtual World

Domains: Musicology and performing arts; Artificial Intelligence [cs.AI]; Graphics [cs.GR]; Human-Computer Interaction [cs.HC]

Hugo Scurto, Ludmila Postel. Soundwalking Deep Latent Spaces. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME’23), May 2023, Mexico, Mexico. ⟨hal-04108997⟩