The Workshop is organized in conjunction with the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Padova and Venezia 15 - 19 July 2014, Italy. The Workshop will be held the 18th and 19th of July 2014 in Venice (see the program for more info).

The idea to develop autonomous systems in order to produce sounds, more or less organized, dates back to ancient times: jingling objects moved by wind or water, Aeolian harps, until the first toothed rollers used by the Arabs since the Ninth century. From the fifteenth century were manufactured lot of self-playing musical instruments, such as roller harpsichords, carillons bells, musical automata applied to mechanical watches for which specific musical pieces were written by Haydn, Mozart, Salieri, and Beethoven.

In recent years, several robotic devices have been developed able to play musical instruments such as organ, flute, trumpet, and violin, by reproducing the musician’s main actions: pressing the keys, blowing in the mouthpiece, or drawing the bow. However, playing music is not limited to the production of sounds from a physical object, but it is a very complex human activity that involves perceptual, cognitive, psychological, and aesthetic processes. Musicians are able to analyze and understand the structural relations between the notes of a musical score; to recognize main themes, variations, and section subdivisions; to plan performance strategies in order to engage the listeners communicating them feelings and emotions; to interact with other musicians in an orchestral ensemble; to improvise musical sequences following a sketch score; to critically evaluate their own (or other’s) performance. Developing autonomous systems for playing music represents therefore a challenging research theme, representing a promising field for investigating basic principles of human emotion, intelligence, creativity and individuality.

The workshop goal is to bring together researchers and practitioners in this interdisciplinary and transversal field, and to foster discussion of ongoing work and future directions of related topics by providing a forum for focused exchanges on new ideas, developments, and results.
 
A concert will take place at the Concert hall of Palazzo Pisani in Venice (Conservatory of Music "Benedetto Marcello") on 18th of July (8 pm), in which some computational systems (autonomous and interactive) for expressive music performance will play a motorized acoustic grand piano.

Invited speaker
Haruhiro Katayose, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan.
Title: Autonomously Acquiring "Human-like Behaviors" of Agents with Biological Constraints - A Case Study of Constructing Computer Mario Player

Scientific committee
Roberto Bresin, KTH Royal Institute of technology, Sweden
Sergio Canazza, University of Padova, Italy
Giovanni De Poli, University of Padova, Italy
Anders Friberg, KTH Royal Institute of technology, Sweden
Mitsuyo Hashida, Soai University, Japan
Haruhiro Katayose, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Antonio Rodà, University of Padova, Italy
Emery Schubert, University of New South Wales, Australia
Davide Tiso, Conservatory of Venice, Italy
Gerhard Widmer, Kepler University Linz, Austria
Paolo Zavagna, Conservatory of Venice, Italy
 


Workshop organizers
Antonio Rodà, University of Padova
Sergio Canazza, University of Padova