Introducing Darwintunes, Songs That Evolve As You Listen
I can’t explain this any better than Boing Boing did:
Darwintunes are short musical loops that mutate and evolve as listeners vote: “the higher rated loops get to have sex and have baby loops which form the next generation, to be rated, have sex, have babies and so on.”
The examples given start out as warbly bursts of random noise. A hundred generations in, and it sounds like kids fooling around with water-filled bottles.
Five-hundred in, chords emerge. A thousand mutations in and melodies and rhythm are present…
Three-thousand, and drums and textures seem weirdly to emerge from the deep.
Eight-thousand generations down the line, and we have something simple and magical…
It’s a wonderful example of a simple idea: that apparent design shows up fast, and the “designs” are often lovely.
Got that? Now have a listen to how the music evolves over many, many generations. Meanwhile, you can read more here and here.
