Purposeful art - Towards real democracy and better global governance

The purposeful projects fall broadly into two camps: those which are concerned with political reform, mainly in relation to major environmental sustainability problems for which humans are responsible; and those which focus on the philosophical/ spiritual aspects of the human condition.

Outline description of the art projects

Preliminary work had been carried out on an experimental music project starting in the late 1980s up until around 1997. This was followed by the creation of a small number of 'purposeful art' and 'purposeful art and audio' works over the period 2000-2018, and also some more contemplative works. Building on the basic conventional music composition techniques acquired while working on the experimental music project, and later on the Anthem CD, the purposeful illustrative-expressive slow-video Impermanence was completed in 2015. The first version of the website was produced as a platform to display Impermanence.

The following colour coding convention has been adopted for internal website links to images of art projects and illustrations:

This computer-based project resulted in many 'organised sound' compositions over the period 1990-1997. Early algorithmic experiments were based on simple environmental models. Later work explored psychological models, which resulted in Life stage 8 and Organ 1995 . A short prototype experimental composition Vivace for solo cello was used to investigate instrument-specific performance constraints, in order to further develop the project software. Further software development later enabled the composition of An Anthem for Sustainability (see millennial projects, below), which marked the culmination of the experimental music project.

Experimental music project

Visual metaphor was used in a simplistic and contrived way in the painting What have we done?

From What have we done? [Artworks]

In some later artworks it is used to convey a sense of the mystical, using colour mixing theory to provide a conceptual analogy for light.

From Breaking through of the light [Artworks]

This is discussed further in the link below.

The use of visual metaphor [Insights:Notes]

The painting What have we done? and the organised sound composition An Anthem for Sustainability were produced in 2000. Following the competition success of the Anthem, work was put in hand to obtain a studio recording with real performers, and to produce a CD An Anthem for Sustainability , which was completed in 2002. This included artwork for the CD leaflet.

An attempt was also made to write a poem The end of the dividend [Notes] to complement both the Anthem and the painting What have we done? The CD box rear-insert included a small image of the painting.

Purposeful art is of course used in the marketing of commercial products. The ensuing profits can justify large research budgets to further optimise marketing impact. In contrast, purposeful art used for citizen-campaigns, for example to raise awareness about adverse consequences arising from business activities and their externalised costs, is not likely to be as well resourced. This is discussed further in [Issues].

Being temperamentally disinclined to engage in commercial or publicity-based activities is not a helpful attribute for successful awareness-raising. This requires determination and the right skills, and unless an intentionally purposeful non-commercial artwork is effectively brought to the attention of potentially interested viewers, it might as well be viewed as art therapy; a pastime; or an indulgence.

Early attempts to use purposeful art/ audio to reinforce awareness-raising efforts now look rather dated in comparison with today's slick marketing campaigns using social media. Copies of the Anthem CD were handed out when networking, at conferences for example. 'Non-business' cards depicting the What have we done? image were printed. Larger prints of the painting were enclosed with political correspondence, in the hope that the latter might have more impact. More assertive publicity was used for various local campaigns. This website and the complementary (then) Twitter page were originally launched in 2015.

Around the time of the millennium a number of philosophical and religious groups had been discussing the need for establishing a universal Global Ethic. Authors Leonard Swidler and Hans Küng were particularly active in this endeavour. In 1993 in Chicago the Parliament of the World's Religions adopted "The Declaration of a Global Ethic" (Anon., 1993), which was based on a draft document prepared by Hans Küng.

An idealistic yearning for world peace fuelled the notion of transcending barriers between all peoples. Inspired by the concept of a universal global ethic, some preliminary ideas for a composition on spiritual transformation were explored. In late 2003 the impetus to start detailed composition of the painting Feeling the common ground resulted from frustration over futile attempts to correspond usefully with the US and UK governments about the nature of the US response after 9/11, about the 'regime change' political stance on Iraq, and especially about the totally unconvincing 'weapons of mass destruction' rhetoric.

Personal political engagement [Introduction]

In his very informative and chilling book Rogue States Noam Chomsky writes: 'To ensure that its writ is law, a rogue superpower must maintain "credibility".... the concept is invoked regularly in justification of state violence' (Chomsky, 2000, p.6).

It is as if the US did what it wanted by brute force, and the UK just went along with it.

Unsurprisingly, subsequent ongoing aggressive militarism stirred up a hornets' nest of hate, bitter resentment, and desire for revenge. This has exacerbated the terrorist threat; and greatly muddied the waters regarding "who do you trust?"

The political climate so changed that, ironically, what was intended as a pro-peace artwork might later be regarded by some as provocative. The painting was started early 2004 and continued intermittently until final completion in Spring 2011. After a long period of hesitation, and following a number of discussions on the question of the likelihood of misunderstandings, the painting image was finally displayed in a spirit of promoting goodwill, and the transcending of barriers.

Art produced without commercial considerations will tend to reflect areas of personal interest to the artist. Following a decision in 2004 to explore meditation, a number of artworks depicting meditation were produced, up until around 2012. These included, in addition to Feeling the common ground :

Two further artworks which utilise visual metaphor for philosophical/ spiritual purposes were also produced during this period:

Although the science of environmental unsustainability and of climate change, for example (Langmuir, 2012), is now generally accepted, worthy efforts to address the problems have been blocked for decades by those with vested interests (TwVI).

Rogue operator behaviour [Power structure].

To minimise the risk of this happening to yet another UN summit, a massive awareness-raising effort was made by many people during the period leading up to COP21 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, December 2015 (Wikipedia: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Confusingly, the actual conference is referred to as the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC).

The original art-concept was for a Son et Lumière to be performed in Paris at the time of the COP21, to which conference delegates would be invited. The key point of this intended purposeful art contribution was to draw attention to the preposterous situation that 4.5 billion years of planetary evolution is being squandered over a period of just a few hundred years by misguided business interests; and to the potentially catastrophic consequences of such recklessness.

We live in a biosphere [Issues]

The hope was to appeal to the better natures, and common sense, of any protagonists present for a halt in the madness. The idea of trying to 'soften the hearts' of some of the conference delegates, through the power of music at a cultural event, developed through a collaboration with professional musician Naomi Takagi (since deceased).

For various reasons it was decided not to attempt to deliver the performance. A full length 'slow video' simulation was produced, with all the intended music tracks, to be made available as a DVD.

Impermanence [Full length DVD]

It was not possible to show this version online because of copyright restrictions, so a scaled-down short online video was produced. This private contribution to the overall citizens' effort was successfully completed in time to be viewed during the run up to the conference.

Impermanence [Short online version] [Artworks]

This website was originally set up simply as the means to display Impermanence. A short extract from the DVD [~12'] was also licensed and sent to the organisers of the COP21 community projects. However the event-scheduling was disrupted by the declaration of a state of emergency in France following the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks (Wikipedia: 2015 UN Climate Change Conference).

It turned out that it was a fortunate call to decide not to attempt to deliver the proposed Son et Lumière, because it would have had to be cancelled.

A number of audio clips and some revised videoclips (for example The BAU growth paradigm and Man wants more) were later extracted from the short online version for convenience.

Becoming a user of Twitter marked a change in the type of artwork produced. A less nuanced, more campaign-oriented, illustrative image had the benefit of being relatively quickly generated, but was much less likely to be deemed worthy of being listed in the [Artworks] collection; especially if it was in the shape of a banner. Banner-shaped images could readily be adapted to page headers or pinned tweets.

Pinned tweets are useful for short periods, for example to notify X (ex-Twitter) users of new website releases Hope or Oblivion? [General], or to highlight a particular theme.

At the other end of the graphics scale a favicon was produced, which appears in front of the website address.

The urgency of the situation [Issues] a digital image produced shortly after COP21.

The image depicts potentially catastrophic human-caused future tipping points, with the tipping point graph [Notes] - shown before and after tipping.

This was a personal response to the apparent lack of recognition of the urgency of addressing climate risk, at the January 2016 meeting at Davos [Issues], while also crediting an appropriate recognition by the Doomsday clock adjustment in January 2016 (Anon., 2016a).

The image was first displayed as a Twitter banner with the title Before the tipping point, then revised in 2017, and then again in 2018.

Road junction pre-storm [Inference] originally produced as a Twitter banner.

Road junction post-storm [Inference] originally produced as a Twitter banner.

The present moment [Insights:Notes] about the awareness of now; produced in 2017.

Based on a photograph. A similar version was used a Twitter banner from 2016/7-2021. Its theme relates to Reality check (see below), which was my 'pinned tweet' from 2018-2020.

An image similar to that below was used as a Twitter banner to coincide with the October 2022 website update. The image is also used as an illustration on the Issues page, and on non-business cards which depict the website title and core message.

My first personalised icon was set up on Twitter in 2016. A revised version is now included on the website Home page.

Ruined planet [Issues] synthesised digital image representing a notional hot planet, following substantial sea level rise.

Reality check symbolising the mystery of what consciousness actually is, and about what science has discovered about the fundamental nature of reality. The philosophical/ spiritual implications of this are not widely understood, but they are very relevant to the present human predicament.

This campaign-style graphic is currently listed in the [Artworks] collection under somewhat false pretences. It is in the collection because of the philosophical and practical significance of the issues being (inadequately) represented, rather than on artistic merit.

Electrosensitivity [Life choices: Notes] about biological effects of electro-magnetic fields.

Extensively revised in 2017 from a poster which was originally produced for a mobile phone mast campaign in 2000.

Mass-burn incineration [Power structure: Notes] depicts the fallout of combustion products from incinerators.

Extensively revised in 2017 from an early campaign art image, originally produced in 2012.

Returning ASAP depicts choices we make; produced in 2019.

Ruined lives [Power structure] depicts bombed building rubble, and implied ruined lives; produced in 2020.

Between COP21 and COP26 the website content involved a shift in the mode of articulation from issue-expression through purposeful art to more analysis and written substantiation. Addressing the core issues from more psychological and philosophical/ spiritual perspectives, it was necessary to develop an inferential analysis [Inference] technique. As the emphasis of the investigation evolved further, it became necessary to clarify and formalise the website Aims [General].

The website was originally launched as a simple platform to display the slow-video Impermanence [Artworks] during the build up to the COP21 Climate Change Conference, in Paris. It was later extended to exhibit my other non-commercial artworks. Six years on, in the year of the deferred COP26, it turned out that the world still appeared to be tracking the Limits to Growth [Issues] business as usual scenario.

This business as usual scenario is depicted in Part II of one of my earliest purposeful artworks An Anthem for Sustainability [Artworks]. Part III of the Anthem depicts a contrived pro-sustainability scenario.

Further confirmation of BAU tracking was provided by (Anon., 2019b).

At a scientific conference back in 2001, an example of the expediency of business as usual [Inference] was encountered which did not seem to be in the spirit of the conference. The author of one of the conference papers was welcoming the commercial benefits of Arctic sea ice melting due to climate change. After 18 years it might have been hoped that such an idea would be deemed preposterous. However BBC News reported in 2019 that that exactly the same view was being expressed by the US. In 2025 it is again being cited in the context of President Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland.

Both of these observations confirm that the ongoing commitment by the status quo to economic growth at all costs is relentless. Indeed, it is business as usual.

Experimental music project

People are now very familiar with music which has been produced 'using computers'. Computer technologies are routinely used at all stages from composition through to performance, recording, broadcasting and distribution. But it wasn't always so, and before developments in deep-learning and artificial intelligence, pioneering research had been carried out using computers as a tool in mathematics.

The possibilities offered by the home personal computers of the mid-1980s were very inspiring to many amateur experimenters. A particularly notable feature of this period was an increased awareness of the beauty of fractal images. In my case the opportunity to use a home computer to learn more about meaning in music felt liberating, and so I embarked on an experimental music project initially to explore "1/f" (see below).

One such field of exploration was the fractal geometry of nature^fr. This is a way of characterising the seemingly complex shapes and random fluctuations in both space and time. Noting the prevalence of a feature called 1/f-noise in nature (where f denotes frequency, or pitch), researcher Richard Voss discovered that almost all musical melodies mimic 1/f-noise, having a similar blend of randomness and predictability^rv.

^fr The term fractals was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975 (Barnsley et al., 1988, p.25).

Having long felt that music was 'meaningful', but without knowing why, Voss's discovery was philosophically very interesting. Perhaps this inner conviction of meaning in music reflected something deeply significant in nature, such as the boundary between order and chaos?

Various computer algorithms were constructed; such that simulation variables in time could be mapped to pitch and loudness, and the results output as a standard computer data-file (format 1) of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface [MIDI] specification (Anon., 1989). These files could then be played directly using a synthesiser, or read by a commercial score program, which also used MIDI.

The commercial program used could perform from the score through a synthesiser, as in the example Organ 1995. It was necessary to learn some basic music theory, in order to organise the stream of notes generated by the algorithm into a generally recognisable musical format. It was then necessary to arrange the computed notes so as not to exceed the pitch ranges of real instruments. (Piston, 1988) was found to be a very helpful orchestration reference.

Notes: Overview of project for those with a technical interest

In principle, an algorithmically generated 'composition' could be converted, after suitable editing, to a musical score which could be conventionally performed by a musician. A computer printed score could be submitted to a competition, and performed by a musician without an adjudicator knowing that the music had been composed algorithmically. It was thought that this method should provide an unbiased verification of the merits, or otherwise, of an algorithmic composition.

In 1995 an algorithmically composed 10 movement suite for string quartet was submitted to a national competition for composers, and also to a national society promoting new music, both without success. More realistically it was then decided to commit to submitting an entry annually in a local amateur music Competitive Festival.

Also in 1995, an algorithmic composition titled Life stage 8 was performed by a school string quartet in the Competitive Festival^dkh.

Organ 1995 was another arrangement taken from the competition entry Life stages suite. Reassuringly the piece was performed without apparent difficulty by a local musician.

Apart from basic pitch range considerations, the earlier algorithmic compositions had made no allowance for physical playability. Consequently it was difficult for musicians to perform the pieces as accurately, or as fast, as the synthesised performances. After heeding advice from a professional composer, my focus shifted to solo instrument composition; initially for the cello. A very short work Vivace, for solo cello was generated, and tested for playability by a friend.

After learning more about cello performance constraints, the Bagatelle for solo violoncello was generated. This used an additional level of algorithmic filtering to take some physical performance contraints into account. In 1996 this piece was submitted to the open composition category of the Competitive Festival. In 1997 a conventionally composed solo flute piece Flute solo: A researcher's tale was submitted, albeit with only a limited understanding of flute performance constraints. Each of these entries was performed by a professional musician. The verdict of the adjudicator on the latter entry was particularly disappointing, and marked the end of significant development work on this project.

At this stage it was concluded that the problem was probably partly due to the performance difficulties, arising from a lack of appreciation of instrument-specific performance constraints. This was partly due to a general lack of knowledge and experience of music, but probably mostly due to a lack of experience in performing music, including with other musicians.

However, an idea for surmounting the performance difficulty issue was trialled in 2000. This comprised a hybrid choral piece An Anthem for Sustainability with two conventionally composed sections and two algorithmically composed sections. Again all sections posed technical physical performance difficulties, and although it felt like a slight compromising of the original verification of musical merit principle, a tape recording of a synthesised performance was submitted. At that time synthesisers had limited human voice representation capability ('ooh' and 'ah' sounds), but the piece could be accurately performed at the required tempo. None of my previous competition entries had been awarded high marks, but - finally - this entry won the category.

In 2002 a 'chamber scale' performance of the Anthem was studio-recorded as a CD single, using multi-tracking with 3 soloists covering the 6 parts.

Computer music composition has since developed considerably, for example using style-emulation and AI deep learning technology. However it is still thought that the simulation approach used for the Anthem was quite promising.

Notes: Use of external simulation models

Notes: Project documentation difficulties

Professional artists and commercial purposeful art

It is hoped that most professional artists would broadly agree with the case for a creative approach [Introduction] to non-commercial art.

Of course art is very purposefully and successfully used in the marketing of commercial products and services. But there is another special type of commercial purposeful art, whereby professional artists are paid for their work (presumably^disc), but their art is nevertheless political. This section lists some examples.

^disc Disclaimer: It may be that in some cases the professional artist chooses to donate her/ his professional-level art without payment, and/or may obtain some form of arts sponsorship^csoa or grant to offset their costs.

Following the UK EU membership referendum on June 23 2016, the 2003 Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry conducted an art project for Channel 4 television. The programme "Grayson Perry: Divided Britain" was broadcast on May 30 2017; a summary is given in (Perry, 2017a). His concept was to produce two large ceramic vases which would be decorated to represent the images, visions and aspirations of each of the two "tribes" of a divided nation; Brexit Leavers and Remainers. He used social media to invite members of the two tribes to send in photographs and other information and opinions to illustrate each side of the debate; in order to provide the material to compose the artwork. The two vases Matching Pair took five months to complete. Those contributing to the artwork were invited to scrutinise both vases, and to identify which was which.

With perfect timing, on the eve of the UK general election on June 8 2017, he opened "The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!" at the Serpentine Gallery in London. The first third of the YouTube video (Perry, 2017b) is devoted to a description of Matching Pair.

A key finding of the project was that in probing deeper into the issue, Perry found a lot more common ground between Remainers and Brexiteers than might have been expected from the split-vote. A number of reviewers praised his contribution to a better understanding of today's Britain.

Faceless Capitalism This work by contemporary stone carver Deborah Harrison depicts the ruthless disregard for suffering of humanity caused in the pursuit of financial gain, the dehumanisation of those who exploit others in this way, and the inherent untruthfulness of 'trickle-down' economics. (Harrison, 2018 ).

Some other examples:

Notes

As a result of working on the experimental music project, and as part of learning about art around the time of the millennium, it was considered a useful exercise to attempt to express the problem of unsustainability using several different artistic languages/ modes of artistic expression - music, visual art, prose, and poetry.

The task of writing a serious poem posed a personal challenge. Preliminary investigations led to the discovery of some inspirational avenues for further exploration; (Ricoeur, 2000), (Holtzman, 1994), (Chomsky, 1994), (Raffman, 1993), and (Jackendoff, 1995). Pragmatically, and with some regret, it was decided that learning more about this field would have to be deferred to some future date.

To provide focus the resulting effort (below) was submitted to a Poetry Festival competition in 2000, unsurprisingly without success. A friend commented that "it reads more like a manifesto than a poem". In relation to the art categorisation scheme developed for this website (Table of art and audio categories [Insights]), it would not qualify as illustrative-expressive, and barely as campaign art.

After attending a one-day poetry course, the course-tutor was invited to comment on the poem. Constructively, she thought it would "be better as a piece of poetic prose"...[but as a poem] "it would work better with a smaller focus"..."I like the last 6 lines particularly - these alone could work up into a poem, perhaps?"

While writing this website, it was recalled that the phrase 'To be or to have - is that the real question?', towards the end of the poem above, was an adaptation of a phrase believed to be from the Bard. But it is also possible that the idea might have 'marinaded' with thoughts from reading (Maslow, 1993) and/or (Latouche, 1993). Just in case - grateful acknowledgements to all three anyway!

This algorithmic composition experimentation project was initially inspired by some research work on fractal music described in The Science of Fractal Images (Barnsley et al., 1988, pp.39-43). Richard Voss explains the exciting discovery that "almost all musical melodies mimic 1/f-noise" (Voss, 1975), (Voss, 1978) [ f=frequency, pitch]. Spectral density measurements of the pitch fluctuations in music from a wide range of types were found to correlate with 1/f-noise. The only exceptions found were that the melody fluctuations in the music of some very modern composers approached white noise at low frequencies. Similar results were found when loudness fluctuations in the different types of music were analysed.

Spoken language was also analysed. It was noted that while Greek philosophers had generally agreed on the imitative nature of the arts, they were troubled about what music without words could be imitating. This research suggested that music imitates the characteristic way our world changes with time. But although 1/f-noise is a very commonly found type of fluctuation in nature, its origin was not yet known.

Using random fractal algorithms to synthesize 1/f ⁿ "music", it was found that:

White noise (1/f ⁰ ) sounded musically too random

Brownian motion (1/f ² ) sounded smoother but was musically boring as it was too correlated

Musically the intermediate (1/f ¹ ) seemed to offer the most pleasing balance between randomness and predictability.

The article Sandpiles as a paradigm of noise (Maddox, 1990) explains how a theory of Per Bak et al. (Bak, 1987) about the prevalence of 1/f-noise in nature was tested by investigating the behaviour of small sandpiles. Their explanation was "that there is a tendency for large-scale systems to become organised into a state in which they are just on the edge of instability".

Having long sensed that music was 'meaningful', but without knowing why, the evidence for a musical balance between randomness and predictability was philosophically very interesting. In particular because of the potential significance of 1/f-noise in nature - perhaps at the boundary between order and chaos?

But after some experimentation it soon became apparent that mere 1/f-spectral compliance was not a sufficient criterion for 'interesting music'. The next project task was therefore to generate an algorithm, based initially upon simplistic assumptions about what might plausibly generate more interesting music; music with a 1/f-spectral density, but also music with meaningful structural content.

Algorithms from (Barnsley, 1988), together with standard fast fourier transform software, provided the basic development tools needed ^tmb. The frequency spectra from more interesting simulated time histories were computed, and inspected for 1/f compliance. Further useful information about structural content was obtained from 'phase portrait' analysis; whereby the velocity of a note was cross-plotted against its displacement (see below).

^tmb The technical help and collaboration of a friend for the spectral analysis phase of the project is gratefully acknowledged.

Model variables in time could be mapped to pitch and loudness, and the results output in a standard computer data-file format 1 which could then be read by a commercial score program which also used the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specification.

Simple environmental model simulations were trialled for these experiments, with model variables in time mapped to pitch and loudness. The results from these early simulations were played directly using a synthesizer. Some of the more interesting results, for example Sitar 1990 , were recorded onto cassette tape. The phase portrait for the piece Sitar 1990 is shown below. The extent of overall 1/f compliance can be seen, together with some interesting structure.

Analysis of pure 1/f-spectral components with constant phase showed that in the time-domain the overall cumulative waveform, obtained by summing cosine wave components, was a bathtub-shaped curve. The bathtub curve is a classic representation of the failure rate of a manufactured component over its lifetime; with a wear-in phase where teething troubles might arise, followed by a relatively trouble-free period of service, before wear-out failures start to increase.

Given that human mortality curves are not dissimilar, this provides at least one reason as to why 1/f is significant/ meaningful in nature!

More complex environmental model simulations required human impacts to be considered. Later model developments took inspiration from sources such as The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (Maslow, 1993), and Human Behaviour (Berger, 1991).

One such composition project was Life Stages Suite No.1. This was based on a simplistic model in which it was attempted to integrate Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory with the eight stages of Erik Erikson's developmental theory (Berger, 1991, pp.44-47). The outcome was a ten movement suite for string quartet, which could be performed using synthesised solo string instrument sounds. Preliminary development of this idea concentrated on 'Life stage 8', which corresponded to Erikson's Stage 7 (Maturity). The numerical disparity occured because an extra 'foetal' stage was introduced. The full suite was completed in 1995 [duration ~17'].

The planned music verification methodology for the overall experimental music project is outlined in Experimental music project [Purposeful art]. Following this methodology, a full score of the Life Stages Suite No.1 was optimistically submitted to a national competition for composers, but without success or any useful technical feedback. More realistically, subsequent competition entries were submitted to a local amateur music festival.

Two arrangements from the full suite were selected as standalone compositions; Life stage 8 for string quartet, and Organ 1995. These are included in [Artworks].

In principle, simulated time histories for model variables within any external algorithm representing time dependent processess could be generated, and mapped to pitch and loudness for processing using the experimental music software. The external algorithm used need not necessarily have anything to do with music.

Preliminary work was carried out so that the project software could utilise outputs from pre-existing external models. This approach (see below) later formed the basis of the An Anthem for Sustainability, which used outputs from a pre-existing socio-economic model.

The piece was generated from a simple environmental model simulation, with model variables in time mapped to pitch and loudness, and performed using a synthesised 'sitar' sound from an early MIDI sound module. The following audio track [dur.5'06"] is a digitally de-hissed and processed 16 bit mono recording from an original cassette tape recording made in 1990:

The following audio track [dur.1'05"] was digitally recorded and processed from a synthesised performance using MIDI software, and a sampled cello sound. The original composition was produced in 1995, and at that time the synthesised performance was recorded on cassette tape:

Simulation-scenario data was obtained from running the well-documented World2^w2 computer model on a personal computer. The time-histories were then used in conjunction with experimental music project software (written by me) to generate the composition in MIDI file format 1. From this a full score with parts was generated using commercial software.

Trying to resurrect aspects of the work for retrospective documentation was severely hampered by the expiry, and non-replaceability, of the computers^hws used for the early work. Important parts of the original DOS-based code were hardware-specific. The saving grace for documenting the work has been my early decision to save the music composition files in the standard MIDI format 1.

^hws Pre-requisite minimum specification: 16 bit, 486DX2 processor, serial port for hardware MIDI interface.

Outline description of the art projects

Experimental music project

Professional artists and commercial purposeful art

Notes