Alexandria Smith

Changda Ma, Sunshiyu Wang, Canting Zhu et al.

Architecture and music have been linked through proportion and temporal structure, yet architectural geometry is rarely viewed as a source of generative music. Revisiting Xenakis' one-directional transformation from string glissandi in Metastaseis to the ruled surfaces of the Philips Pavilion, we invert this workflow and sonify the completed Pavilion as a temporal composition. We reconstruct the Pavilion as nine ruled surfaces, extract their governing ruling lines, and subdivide each surface into structural lines and spatial sampling points. Four evenly spaced ruling lines per surface generate continuous string glissandi, while 3357 sampled points develop five density-based energy blocks and a sparse brass and woodwind subsequence. Implemented in Python, the system produces MIDI rendered in Ableton Live, accompanied by a real-time 3D visualization that reveals architectural motion, stasis, and structural contrast through sound and image. In general, this work paves the way for the transfer of architectural geometry as a performable musical structure, extending Xenakis's architectural and musical thinking to sonification and interactive music practice.

Ling Qi, Aleksandra Teng Ma, Alexandria Smith

The I-Ching is one of the most influential texts in Chinese intellectual history, integrating divination, cosmology, and ethical reflection. While Western experimental music, most notably John Cage, has drawn on the I-Ching as a source of chance operation, such appropriations have often detached its formal mechanisms from the interpretive and philosophical processes that give the text meaning. This work, Music of Changing Lines, presents an interactive system that re-centers the I-Ching as a meaning-bearing framework rather than a neutral randomizer. Users perform Wen Wang Fa coin casting, which is accompanied in real time through probabilistic musical processes. The resulting hexagrams and changing lines are interpreted by a large language model, Gemini, in relation to the user's inquiry. This textual interpretation is then translated into a prompt for a generative music model, Lyria, producing a responsive musical realization. By situating AI as an interpretive intermediary rather than a compositional authority, the system foregrounds the I-Ching's ritual, interpretation, and participation as the primary sonic materials. Music of Changing Lines extends process-driven traditions in computer music by demonstrating how generative AI can support participatory, meaning-driven musical processes without prescribing musical structure or replacing human agency.