The Human in the Loop

For wheelchair dance, cello, sensors, real-time score generation, live-electronics, live-notation.”

“The Human in the Loop” premiered at the Daegu Art Factory on the 28 Th of November 2025 in the Context of the Daegu International Computer Music Festival.

Dmitry Lee and U Ri Jo rehearsing the work at the Daegu Art Factory

This work is conceived as a cooperative musical game between a Wheeldance chair and a computer. This work aims to explore a form of creativity that arises from the integration of different intelligences, with a focus on the concept of machine-human interaction. To achieve this in thework, a wheelchair and a cognitive agent are embodied through the game. This is an algorithm-driven piece with a sound result that cannot be predicted by the composer. The work is composed in real-time by the Wheelchair dancer, whose movement is converted by an algorithm into music that will be played by a cello using a real-time notation system.

The Wheeldance chair moves around the stage; her movement is monitored by sensors and sent to the computer. Inside the patch, a cognitive agent will do the same virtually. The musician and the virtual musician are told that they are participating in a game in which they compete to create music. So they must use their intelligence to move in such a way that their part is the better one. To do so, the dance chair must evaluate the musical result and adjust her movements accordingly based on her assessment of the sound result. The real-time generative system receives the movements of the dance chair and the agent and creates the score. One part of the score will be sent to the cello player by a real-time notation system. The cello player will receive the notes to play on a mobile phone. The other parts of the score will be converted into electronic music.

Dmitry Lee U RI JO and busevin in the Daegu Art Gallery after the concert

References

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