Can artificial intelligence collaborate with humans in creative processes at the same level? What would this collaboration look like? These complex questions form the basis for the research conducted by researchers at Technische Hochschule Nürnberg (Ohm) and Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg (HfM) as part of an interdisciplinary project funded by LEONARDO - Center for Creativity and Innovation.

The interdisciplinary music research conducted by HfM involves collaboration with Ohm academics specializing in machine learning. The focus of this collaboration will be on developing “artificial creativity”: the interaction between human musicians and innovative musical instruments and artificial intelligence.

The joint project is also linked to the creation of a professorship in “Artificial Creativity and Musical Interaction” at the HfM that was an additional benefit resulting from the AI competition run by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.

The “centerpiece” of this joint research project, the Steinway & Sons Spirio R self-playing piano, an analogue-digital hybrid instrument, is also of particular interest. The researchers hope to use the instrument not only to gain data-based insights into musical interpretation but also particularly to research the possibilities of an interface with artificial intelligence (Trump et al., 2021).

A recent techreport summarizes the findings of the project (Agchar et al., 2024)

leonardo-zentrum.de/projekt-spirio-sessions

The project was also covered in the media, e.g.:

References

  1. Agchar, I., Baumann, I., Braun, F., Perez-Toro, P.A., Riedhammer, K., Trump, S., Ullrich, M., 2024. A Survey of Music Generation in the Context of Interaction. 10.48550/arXiv.2402.15294
  2. Trump, S., Agchar, I., Baumann, I., Braun, F., Riedhammer, K., Siemandel, L., Ullrich, M., 2021. Spirio Sessions: Experiments in Human-Machine Improvisation with a Digital Player Piano, in: Proc. Conference on AI Music Creativity.