metamusic - interactive music for grey parrots

since 2012 [http://alien.mur.at/metamusic] metamusic aims to develop interactive sound installations and electronic instruments for animals held in captivity. The project`s target is to improve the animals quality of life, by designing an interactive musical environment that takes the specific needs and skills of the animals into consideration. metamusic, initiated by the artists` group alien productions in collaboration with the zoologists and animal keepers of the ARGE Papageienschutz, centers its attention on grey parrots. Parrots are intelligent, individualistic and communicative. With them we have been developing and modifying mechanical and electronic instruments which can be played by the birds themselves. Fine tuned sensors provide interactive modulation of sounds. The musical patterns and sonic structures generated by the parrots nevertheless are not meant to sound aesthetically meaningful to human ears. The parrots themselves communicate with each other by means of their own music created by their personal instruments. A major concern of the project is to avoid conditioning or training of the animals. The goal is to research whether or not the parrots will create meaningful music of their own accord in order to find meanings and use in sound, which we have not discovered yet; and which maybe will change our understanding of animal intelligenceand music itself. In further collaboration of the Interface Cultures, University of Art and Design Linz and alien productions we aim to develop metamusic a step further: we will build electronic sound installations to be used by the animals themselves. What are the instruments design aspects to support the physiological and cognitive abilities of grey parrots? Can grey parrots generate meaningful musical and artistic output with such instruments? Can they develop musical skills and adopt an artistic role in a performance setting? What are the common design aspects and differences in musical interface design for animals and humans? How can we support parrot individuality and expressivity in the musical interaction design? Our zoological partners create the preconditions for our work, they take care of the parrots welfare and they are translators for animal behavior. But, unlike their science approach, our artistic interest aims at a creative exchange with this intelligent species. We make music together with parrots. We call it music even though it sounds parrot-like. We look at them as partners in a musical process.

In the course of the metamusic project, researchers at the Tangible Music Lab at the University of Art and Design Linz developed in collaboration with the artist collective "alien productions" a series of interactive musical instruments for grey parrots. The objective of this art-based research project was to improve the living conditions of animals living in captivity, by providing acoustic and digital musical instruments. The applied animal-centered design approach therefore concentrated on the specific cognitive and physical capabilities of the animals and specifically fostered their acoustic abilities and musical preferences, without the application of conventional training or conditioning methods. The actual interaction with the musical instruments should hereby provide the actual musical reward for the animals, and specifically foster their curiosity and joy with the musical results. This research work has been realised following the guidelines of the Animal-Computer-Interaction Manifesto and has been conducted under a strict zoological and ethical framework in collaboration with ARGE Papageienschutz. The final outcome of this project were the design, development and evaluation of a total of six interactive musical instruments, which alien productions in collaboration with the grey parrots artistically staged during several public events to an interested audience. A series of initial preparatory experiments also investigated the acoustic abilities and the musical interests of a group of grey parrots, and generally also the artistic role and musical agency of animals within numerous third-party projects. In this context the "Animal Music Symposium" at the University of Art and Design Linz also constituted the first interdisciplinary Gathering around this particular research topic. The research results of the metamusic project also have been presented at international conferences and have been published in scientific journals, a compact project summary and its musical results can be viewed in the following video documentary at Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/375277281