Linda Worsley, Composer

Virtual Conductor in Palo Alto

Last Tuesday evening (February 13, 2001) I went with my son Steve to a monthly program meeting of BayCHI at the Xerox PARC in Palo Alto.

BayCHI is an organization that holds monthly meeting/presentations for software engineers and designers who are particularly interested in the problems of "human interface". Steve edits the newsletter for BayCHI, I usually proofread it, and often read about notices of interesting presentations. Tuesday's offering seemed particularly intriguing.

One of the presenters was Austrian Human-Computer Interaction expert Jan Borchers. He is currently an acting professor at Stanford, hence his availability to BayCHI. The Virtual Conductor is an interactive exhibit in the new House of Music in Vienna.

The web page tells only a small part of the story and describes only a few of the things Virtual Conductor is capable of.

Mr. Borchers brought a full-scale presentation of Virtual Conductor to Palo Alto for the BayCHI meeting, including a huge projection screen, a large sound system, and electric baton. As the Virtual Conductor, you stand on a podium in front of a projection of the Vienna Philharmonic. You select a composition from the available list, and begin. The orchestra (filmed and recorded during a long shooting day in Vienna) then follows you. Or more specifically, it follows your electronic baton, speeding up, slowing down, playing softer or louder depending on the size and speed of your beat (unlike some groups we've all conducted, yes?). You can even emphasize one side of the orchestra or another by gesturing to that side. Not only does the music get faster along with your beat, but the musicians on-screen play faster as well. It's all done with ones and zeros--the pitch doesn't change, just the tempo or dynamics.

There is a demonstration video on the web site that can be downloaded and played. I assume it's the one we saw at BayCHI. However, even on my fast DSL connection it informed me that it would take 29 minutes to download. Worth it, though, if you have the time and are not paying your ISP by the minute.

One thing the web page doesn't tell you is that if you conduct the virtual orchestra way too fast or too slow, so that the players begin to look and sound ridiculous, they stop playing, and someone in the ranks begins to hurl abuse at you (auf Deutsch). These "objection" sequences were filmed separately, but are seamlessly integrated, and the effect is quite funny.

What the web page also does not explain is that the beat has to be pretty clear and simple. Most of the professional conductors who took part in testing the program had problems. Their beats, being more expressive (notice I didn't say "flamboyant") had little hooks and swirls in them that the orchestra couldn't follow. Wait--that's what I've heard some players say about--O never mind.

In any case, the virtual orchestra interprets those little hooky, swirly gestures as another beat, and the result is chaos (and episodes of hurled abuse from the digital players).

One of the things that struck me as we were driving home: This experience demonstrated to me, once again, what art is all about. It's about not coloring inside the lines, not sticking blindly with the rules, not making the beat straight up and down, not playing the music strictly nanosecond by nanosecond exactly on the beat. We make synthesizers and MIDI systems that are very useful, but that can lure naive and untutored beginners into thinking they are virtuosi or "real" composers. We create virtual realities, virtual experiences like the digital orchestra to make us think we are really conducting, really creating art. But the art does not exist in simply manipulating the ones and zeros, or even the rules of form and counterpoint. It exists in going outside the straight up and down, away from the established norms, and outside the lines.

My musical artist kids have quoted me many times as saying "to be a real artist you have to go to the place on the map that says 'Here be Dragons' and not be afraid." Certainly the amazing minds that created Virtual Conductor went into that dragon territory. And people like Ray Kurzweil (another icon I heard speak locally) who created music synthesizers went into those uncharted waters as well.

But simply using these digital marvels to make a virtual orchestra play faster or slower, or using sequencers, MIDI, and sound generators to "compose" by noodling around--that ain't art. One thing sequencing and synths can accomplish (for the novice) is instant musical gratification. But, again, it ain't art. I think it's great stuff, don't get me wrong, but my fear is that some of these digital wonders will convince people with no equipment to fool themselves into thinking they are musicians. I've seen it happen.

As usual, I digress and get on my soapbox. I have to say that anyone who gets a chance to see and/or use the Virtual Conductor should definitely do it. It's a marvel. It's scary. It's incredible. It's a little creepy. It's amazing. We live in interesting times.

Linda Worsley
February 15, 2001

You can reach Linda at 650-814-7827 or info@ganymuse.com.

© Copyright 2001 Linda Worsley