SomSwarm 1 computational creativity music improvisation: human-computer co-creativity

SomSwarm 1 is a ‘computational creativity’ implemented for musical improvisation performance together with human musicians, and I argue that the implementation is co-creative with human performers in concert music settings. SomSwarm 1 is a first-generation hybrid system combining competitive self-organising maps with a ‘swarm’ algorithm: an artificial swarm moves in a dynamic topological space which is formed by the weights in self-organising networks that are trained with quantifications of features from human performances. The first concert applications of the implementation has been in two music contexts: SomSwarm with Big Band and SomSwarm in a duet with a human soloist. I analyse the implementation in relation to a formal specification for computational creativity in music and I examine the performance situation as a human-computer co-creative activity system. This analysis points to potential future developments for this kind of hybrid system and its ‘co-creative’ role as an improviser in musicking contexts