The program and time table for the IRCAM AIxMusic Garden, Challenging the limits of AI for the next generation of co-creative tools, is now online. The AIxMusic Festival, a S+T+ARTS flagship event, is organised by Ars Electronica and the European Commission.
The COSMOS team is pleased to have contributed to three items (below) to the IRCAM Garden and the larger AIxMusic program at Ars Electronica ’20, broadcasts live then archived on the Ars Electronica YouTube Channel.

Participants: Roberto Viola, Director General, DG CONNECT, European Commission; Elaine Chew, pianist and Senior Researcher, CNRS – UMR9912 / STMS (IRCAM), Visiting Professor of Engineering, King’s College London; Patrick van der Smagt, head of AI research, Volkswagen Group. Moderator: Matthias Röder, director of Karajan Institute
Music touches our mind and our soul. It gives us pleasures, makes us think, and strikes us emotionally. What could be the role of AI in music then? Can AI draw inspiration from music? Can music offer insights for humans in the way AI works? Can music help reconcile AI technology with human priorities and needs? The conversation will reflect on these questions also in the light of a European vision on ‘trustworthy AI’.
Compositions / performances: Elaine Chew, Description of cardiac electrical anomalies: Pier Lambiase, Professor of Cardiology, Barts Heart Centre / UCL. Recordings: Daniel Bedoya, sound engineer and PhD student, Sorbonne University / STMS Lab
Little Etudes is a series of short piano pieces based on cardiac electrical anomalies. Aberrant electrical activity in the heart can cause the heart to beat irregularly. Abnormal heart rhythms form interesting musical patterns. The music provides a medium through which to learn about the cardiac electrical aberrations, each described by Professor of Cardiology, Pier Lambase. This rendition of the Little Etudes is recorded on the Bösendorfer VC280 Enspire PRO by sound engineer Daniel Bedoya.
Moderator: Elaine Chew. Speakers: Dorien Herremans, Assistant Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design; Philippe Esling, Associate Professor, Sorbonne University & IRCAM
Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly prominent role in music composition, performance, and production. How does this benefit or undermine musicians? Where are such developments taking us? Two young protagonists at the leading edge of AIxMusic will debate the limits and future directions of AIxMusic, tackling topics ranging from classic questions of AI takeover to therapeutic and gaming applications to discussions of lightweight deep AI, of uncertainty and unknown models and dimensions.
Introducing the Brussels, Silicon Valley, and Paris AIxMusic Gardens
In this edition of Ars Electronica Inside Festival, Hugues Vinet (IRCAM Director Innovation) introduces the 6 upcoming events in the IRCAM AIxMusic Garden, including the Vertigo Forum Musical Generatives panel Hugues moderates, featuring Douglas Eck, Erin Gee, Giulia Lorusso, Alessandro Rudi, Jérôme Nika, and Alexander Schubert.