Evolving L-Systems with Musical Notes

• Published in: Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Music, Sound, Art and Design Vol. 9596; pp. 186 - 201
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Ana, Costa, Ernesto, Cardoso, Amílcar, Machado, Penousal, Cruz, Tiago
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2016; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Algorithms & data structures; Artificial intelligence; Evolutionary environment; Generative music; Interactive genetic algorithms; L-systems; Sound visualization; User interface design & usability
• ISBN: 9783319310077; 3319310070
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-31008-4_13

Over the years researchers have been interested in devising computational approaches for music and image generation. Some of the approaches rely on generative rewriting systems like L-systems. More recently, some authors questioned the interplay of music and images, that is, how we can use one type to drive the other. In this paper we present a new method for the algorithmic generations of images that are the result of a visual interpretation of an L-system. The main novelty of our approach is based on the fact that the L-system itself is the result of an evolutionary process guided by musical elements. Musical notes are decomposed into elements – pitch, duration and volume in the current implementation – and each of them is mapped into corresponding parameters of the L-system – currently line length, width, color and turning angle. We describe the architecture of our system, based on a multi-agent simulation environment, and show the results of some experiments that provide support to our approach.