Teleology

...is an algorithmic composition of mine — the sounds that you can hear are produced by instruments that play notes selected by an algorithm.

The algorithm simulates matches from a traditional game of cards known by the name Beggar-my-neighbour (also known as Strip Jack Naked).

Every match is defined by the cards that are shuffled and then given to two players, whom I call Neal and Jack.

The pack of cards is not the “standard” pack. It only has 12 cards, by the following face values: two 0s, one 3, two 5s, three 7s, one 8, and three 9s. Six cards are given to Neal, six cards to Jack, and they start playing.

Where does the music come from? From the states of the game, represented by Neal's cards, Jack's card, and the card that are being stacked “on the table” by the two players. Those states are interpreted as numbers, and those numbers select notes.

Sounds complex, though it is actually very simple to code. The simulator, e.g., is available here, while the note selection code is defined here.

Now, if you consider the states of the games as coordinates in a space, what happens exactly? That the progress of the game becomes... a set of points in that space!

And that's what you have in this videoclip: what you see is the set of all possible states, plotted as a set of unit spheres. The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is used to create the frames of the videoclip, in which the position of the observer is slowly changed at each time step so as to create the illusion of movement. The video was created with the Permutation Feedpovray tool.

If you like this music, you may want to download a lossless version of it from my bandcamp. There you may find a lot of my compositions. And if you like them too, maybe you could subscribe to my list and be informed of the new songs I add there.

A “like” to my page would also be great ^_^ Thanks very much!

#Eidon #Teleology #NorbertWiener #Cybernetics #OriginalMusic