Hyperinstruments
Enhanced human expressivity is the most important goal of any technological resarch in the arts.
To achieve this, it is necessary to augment the sophistication of the particular tools available to the artist.
These tools must transcend the traditional limits of amplifying human gesturlity, and become stimulants and facilitators to the creative process itself.
In music, we believe that the combination of machine-augmented instrumental technique, knowledge-based performance monitoring, and intelligent mugic structure generation, will lead to such creative enhancement.
(Machover, The Extended Orchestra, 1986)
We call such systems hyperinstruments, and believe that they will become the musical instruments of the future.
More importantly, perhaps, by combining the traditional roles of performer and composer, and by adding the unprecedented power of machine intelligence, it is likely that experience with such systems will lead to a gradual redefinition of musical expression itself.