Does a CADP environment change the way we think about performing music?

The question frequently presented to participants of the CADP seminar is, “How does a cross-adaptive environment change the way we think when performing music?” I maintain that this question, while in no way nefarious, is misguided in its internalist assumptions regarding skill acquisition.

Skill acquisition is commonly modelled as the process of amassing specific instructions and rules intellectually. Mentally represented actions are then played out physically according to the mind’s design. However, this internalist model breaks down under the scrutiny of modern science and philosophy regarding the embodied, external, and enactive nature of cognition which invalidates the Cartesian dualism of mind and body. Hubert Dreyfus explains in detail an externalist model for skill acquisition. Mastery is not attained through the enumeration and recall of highly specific rules and experiences. Rather, it arises through generalized embodied interactions and generalized experiences. The body attunes itself to a task through the drive to attain a maximum grip on the present task. While initial instructions and discussions can greatly aid in the learning process, it is ultimately attunement through bodily experiences that skill is acquired. The intellectualization of these skills is reflective, rather than premeditative.

Brandtsegg discusses similar skill acquisition in terms of flow or automation:

“There is…a common concept among musicians, [describing] when the music flows so easily [it is] as if the instrument is playing itself. Being in the groove, in flow, transcendent, totally in the moment, or other descriptions may apply. One might argue that this phenomenon is also [the] result of training, muscle memory, gut reaction, instinct. These are in some ways automatic processes. Any fast human reaction relies in some aspect on a learned response, processing a truly unexpected event takes several hundred milliseconds. Even if it is not automated to the same degree as a delay effect, we can say that there is not a clean division between automated and contemplated responses. We could probably delve deep into psychology to investigate this matter in detail, but for our current purposes it is sufficient to say automation is there to some degree at this level of human performance as well as in the instrument itself.”

The phenomenologist Aron Gurwitsch concisely describes the process:

“What is imposed on us to do is not determined by us as someone standing outside the situation simply looking on at it; what occurs and is imposed are rather prescribed by the situation and its own structure; and we do more and greater justice to it the more we let ourselves be guided by it, i.e., the less reserved we are in immersing ourselves in it and subordinating ourselves to it. We find ourselves in a situation and are interwoven with it, encompassed by it, indeed just ‘absorbed’ into it”.

The question, “How does a cross-adaptive environment change the way we think when performing music?” assumes musical performance to be the hylomorphic act of mentally representing cross-adaptive relationships, planning actions, and then physically enacting represented actions onto physical material. Here I propose a different question that allows for an externalist model of skill acquisition: How does a cross-adaptive environment change the way we perform? This question allows for reflective mental representation, not premeditative. It favors the accomplished action and the acquired skill, while avoiding the pitfalls of internalist cognitivism.

Presumably, answers to the question in its initial form would look something like: my thoughts are x, y, and z, when performing in a cross-adaptive environment. These answers are entirely reflective, though posing as having been known in the moment. Dreyfus recounts a study performed by the Air Force which reveals major discontinuities between a flight instructor’s self-analysis of their techniques and the reality of their techniques:

“Air Force psychologists studied the eye movements of the instructors during simulated flight and found, to everyone's surprise, that the instructor pilots were not following the rule they were teaching, in fact their eye movements varied from situation to situation and did not seem to follow any rule at all. They were presumably responding to changing situational solicitations that showed up for them in the instrument panel thanks to their past experience. The instructor pilots had no idea of the way they were scanning their instruments and so could not have entertained the goal of scanning the instruments in that order.”

How useful is it, then, to recount what we assume to have been our thoughts and techniques while performing music if intellectual reflection on skill is uncertain and likely inaccurate? Is it more useful to ask the suggested question: How does a cross-adaptive environment change the way we perform? This question opens present research up to effective analysis including the reviewing of recordings and both qualitative and quantitative assessment of changes in performance behaviors. The result is accurate and meaningful analysis; analysis that does not subject itself to the inconsistencies of time-distorted reflections.

An Externalist Process for Developing Cross-adaptive MIDI Environments

Ligeti’s CADP seminar exposed participants to new compositional and performative territories. Having had no experience with intentionally cross-adaptive environments, it comes as no surprise that composing for such a thing was difficult and uncertain. When composing, there is a strong impulse to intellectualize every aspect of cross-adaptivity. Also acting as performer of said composition only increases a need to obtain a maximum grip on the environment. Attempting to mentally obtain this grip without the physical, embodied experience of interacting with the imagined environment can only result in stressful, fruitless hours of work which produce less-interesting writing and composing. Furthermore, attempting a cross-adaptive composition without physically experiencing the intended MIDI relationships is akin to learning how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. A person cannot imagine what they have not experienced (I make this statement tersely, but qualify it by stating that the sublime is still accounted for in the externalist model of cognition). This is why it is important to setup and attempt to interact with sound and hardware as early on in the cross-adaptive writing process as possible. Composing a piece becomes clear and present after having interacting with the physicality of the thing.

The need for simplicity in a cross-adaptive environment cannot be overstated. It is obvious that there are certain circumstances where a higher complexity is more desirable, but in general it can be said that over-complicating a cross-adaptive environment results in less interesting performance and composition. Brandtsegg addresses this:

“With complex crossadaptive mappings, the intellectual load of just remembering all connections can override any impulsive musical incentive. Now, after doing this on some occasions, I begin to see that as a general method perhaps this is not the best way to do it.”

When spoken this way, it is apparent that more interesting music would likely embody a performer’s impulsive musical incentives. Too many cross-adaptive relationships, according to Brandtsegg, will impede these incentives and dull the work. Compositions that arose from the CADP seminar appear to support this analysis. The interest and meaningfulness of a piece, it seems, sprouts from simple relationships and supports intentionality without representation.

Future

Both Brandtsegg’s and Ligeti’s cross-adaptive projects unearth interesting areas of performance research and skillful action. To continue discovery, it is vital to perpetuate a common definition and understanding of the term cross-adaptive. Increased understanding of the process needs to come through enactive interaction and physical experience with cross-adaptive environments. Only then can accurate and empirically reflective analysis aid in the dissemination of knowledge and information learned through the cross-adaptive experience.

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