Co-Creativity in Music, Sound, and AI
Improvisation, Interaction, Composition
Welcome
Artificial intelligence is transforming how we compose, perform, listen to, and think about music and sound. From real-time improvisation systems to generative audiovisual environments, creative agency is increasingly shared between human and computational actors.
Co-Creativity in Music, Sound, and AI: Improvisation, Interaction, Composition explores these transformations, with a special focus on Somax2, IRCAM’s AI-driven improvisation system, and other machine-learning–based tools for music and audiovisual art. The conference brings together scholars, composers, performers, technologists, and media artists to reflect on co-creativity as a relational, hybrid process distributed across humans, machines, and environments.
The event is also the flagship public project of the EARS InterArts Lab at the Culver Center, connecting research, teaching, and public-facing artistic production. It is supported by a 2025–26 Conference Award from the UCR Center for Ideas and Society, which recognizes the project’s interdisciplinary approach and its contribution to advancing dialogue on music, sound, and artificial intelligence across the humanities and the arts.
Conference location: UC Riverside Main Campus • INTS 1111–1113 Artistic program location: UCR ARTS • Culver Center of the Arts
Conference Themes
The conference programming engages critically and creatively with co-creativity in music, sound, and AI across the following core areas:
Philosophical & Critical Perspectives
- Co-agency, authorship, and distributed creativity
- Phenomenology, embodiment, and perception in human–AI interaction
- Aesthetics of machine-generated sound and image
- Ethical and ecological implications of AI in creative practices
Interfaces & Systems
- Gesture, sensing, multimodal interaction design
- Machine learning in real-time performance
- AI-based instruments and performance systems
Audiovisual Practice
- Improvisation with Somax2 and other ML systems
- Hybrid human–machine compositional processes
- AI in popular music, hip-hop, EDM, and global genres
- Live coding, telematic performance, algorithmic collaboration
- Generative audiovisual environments and installations
Historical Perspectives
- Early algorithmic composition and cybernetic music
- Machine intelligence in musical experimentation
- Comparative frameworks for human–AI creativity
Schedule at a Glance
FRIDAY, JUNE 5 – CAMPUS & CULVER CENTER
Morning & Afternoon — Paper Sessions
Main Campus – INTS 1113Paper sessions exploring the theoretical, artistic, and technical dimensions of co-creativity in music, sound, and AI.
Keynote Presentation — N. Katherine Hayles
Main Campus – INTS 1113A keynote lecture on posthuman subjectivity, nonconscious cognition, and distributed agency in human–AI systems.
Evening Concert 1 — Student Works and Guest Artists
Culver Center AtriumPerformances featuring student projects from the EARS InterArts Lab, together with works by invited guest artists exploring co-creativity, audiovisual media, live electronics, and AI-based creative practices.
Evening Concert 2 — IRCAM / Somax2
Culver Center AtriumA concert by IRCAM artists featuring improvisations, compositions, and interactive performances with Somax2 and related AI-based performance systems.
SATURDAY, JUNE 6 – CAMPUS & CULVER CENTER
Morning — Keynote Lecture and Panel Discussion
Main Campus – INTS 1113Keynote lecture by Eric Lyon, How to Compose AI Music That Isn’t Mid, followed by the panel discussion “AI and Musical Creativity.”
Afternoon — Workshops and Screening
Culver CenterThe afternoon program includes the Embodied Calligraphy Workshop, an Audiovisual Screening drawn from the Sound, Image & AI virtual exhibition, and the IRCAM Somax2 Workshop, a hands-on session with researchers and musicians featuring live interaction, technical demonstration, and artistic discussion.
Evening Concert 3 — Guest Artists and Somax2 Collective Improvisation
Culver CenterThe final concert features works by guest artists and concludes with a Somax2 collective improvisation bringing together performers, researchers, and AI-based interactive systems.
Location & Contact
The conference will take place across two locations: UC Riverside main campus, INTS 1113, for paper sessions, keynote lectures, and panel discussions; and UCR ARTS / Culver Center of the Arts for concerts, workshops, and audiovisual screenings.
For general questions regarding the conference programming or logistics, please contact: audiovisualmusic@ucr.edu
Committees
Scientific & Program Committee
- Paulo C. Chagas – UC Riverside
- Gérard Assayag – IRCAM, Paris
- Nikolay Maslov – UC Riverside
- Ivana Petković Lozo – UC Riverside
- Liz Przybylski – UC Riverside
- Amy Skjerseth – UC Riverside
- Christophe Katrib – UC Riverside
- Steven Leffue – UC Riverside
- Tatiana Catanzaro – UC Santa Barbara
- Tae Hong Park – Purdue University
- Kerry Hagan – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Rodrigo Sigal – ENES–UNAM, Morelia, Mexico
- Marc Battier – Sorbonne University, Paris
- Miriam Akkermann – Freie Universität, Berlin
- Patrick Hartono – RMIT University, Vietnam
- Constantin Basica – CCRMA, Stanford University
- Julie Zhu – University of Michigan
- Celeste Betancur – Stanford University
Organizing Committee
- Paulo C. Chagas (Chair) – UC Riverside
- Nikolay Maslov – UC Riverside
- Ivana Petković Lozo – UC Riverside
- Liz Przybylski – UC Riverside
- Amy Skjerseth – UC Riverside
- Christophe Katrib – UC Riverside
- Tatiana Catanzaro – UC Santa Barbara
- Tae Hong Park – Purdue University
Support
This project is made possible with the support of the UC Riverside Center for Ideas and Society. https://ideasandsociety.ucr.edu
Cosponsored by the CHASS Dean’s Office, UCR RAISE Institute, Department of Anthropology, Department of Dance, Department of History of Art, Department of Media & Cultural Studies, Department of Music, Department of Theatre, Film & Digital Production, and UCR ARTS.
