The Aesthetics of Musical Complex Systems

This article introduces the history and aesthetics of feedback-based music, from early practitioners to more advanced methods and state-of-the-art works based on adaptation. Some of the most relevant techniques developed over almost six decades of investigations in the area of recursive systems for electronic music are discussed to show the variety and richness that a single specialised domain can have, providing examples of how scientific and philosophical principles can be translated into music. The historical context is key to understanding the evolution of the field: feedback-based music arose during the same years in which cybernetics, together with other disciplines, were experiencing a profound transformation. I will provide an overview of how such disciplines changed, highlighting the connections between seemingly distant areas such as philosophy, biology and engineering, and the fact that the development of feedback-based music appears to have followed somewhat closely the evolution of systems thinking. Finally, the article explores questions of musical aesthetics and music theory related to the use of complex autonomous systems in live performance through observations on the author’s creative practice.