Workshop Description
Call for Participation
Schedule
Code of Conduct
Organisers

From Tacit to Tokenised: Critical Perspectives on AI Text-to-Audio Interfaces

In AI text-to-audio interfaces, forms of tacit musical knowledge traditionally developed through embodied interaction are translated into tokenised linguistic descriptors that condition generative models. These models assume that language can serve as a proxy for structuring latent representations and producing musically meaningful outputs. However, musicians and researchers have long argued that music resists containment through verbal description, that it does not operate like a language and exceeds the limits of pure structure. This half-day workshop examines the functionalising of language in semantic cues for AI audio engines, which is moreover largely curated by a small number of multi-national industry giants, and its implications for digital musical instrument design and musical practice more broadly. Participants will engage critically with popular AI text-to-audio models alongside movement-to-audio interfaces to explore how alternative semantic mediation strategies for generating sound shape musical meaning and creativity. A collective open discussion will critically reflect on their cultural, epistemological, musical, aesthetic, and political-economic implications for the NIME and off-NIME communities.

Call for Participation

TBC

Schedule

TBC

Code of Conduct

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Organisers

TBC

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This site will be updated with further information as the hackathon approaches, and all registered participants will be updated via email. In the meantime, if you have any comments or questions, please email c (dot) saitis (at) qmul (dot) ac (dot) uk.