COMPOSING WITH SWARM ALGORITHMS –

CREATING INTERACTIVE AUDIO-VISUAL PIECES

USING FLOCKING BEHAVIOUR
Jan C. Schacher Daniel Bisig Martin Neukom
Zurich University of the Arts
Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology
Baslerstrasse 30
8048 Zürich, Switzerland
{jan.schacher, daniel.bisig, martin.neukom}@zhdk.ch

ABSTRACT
2. BACKGROUND
In this paper, methods and concepts for algorithmic
The transposition of an abstract model, such as the
musical composition with flocking algorithms are
flocking algorithms, into musical forms poses a set of
discussed. Taking three pieces from an exhibition as
interesting challenges. Any computational model of
examples, the strategies for building the specific
natural phenomena such as flocking behaviours
relationships between each swarm-system and its
represents a mathematical abstraction of reality. The
musical results are shown. General considerations about
result of this abstraction involves several aspects that are
the structures of self-organising systems and their
relevant for artistic applications of the model. The
potential for shaping musical dynamics as well as about
properties and behaviours of the natural system have to
adaptive and interactive behaviours in an installation-
be stripped down to a level of generality, that allows
context follow. The central aspects of a low-level
their creative reconfiguration into an artificial
unified algorithmic thinking in artistic processes are
phenomenon. This could for example embody a musical
made evident and further scenarios for the organisation
idea. Yet, the process of abstraction also strips the
of flocking systems and the application to algorithmic
natural phenomenon of its naturally perceivable
musical composition are developed. Finally, some
characteristics. As a consequence, the computational
details are given about the technical tools that were used
model loses many of the perceivable qualities present in
in the implementations.
the original system and therefore is less constraining and
facilitates the application of a much wider variety of
1. INTRODUCTION
musical strategies than the natural phenomenon. The
The transformation of algorithms and simulation almost unlimited number of possibilities for model
techniques from the fields of theoretical biology and customisation and transformation into music constitutes
artificial life into generative mechanisms for musical some of the main challenges of simulation-based
creation provides a vast and fruitful terrain for artistic computer music. The two research projects entitled ISO
experimentation. [8][9][10] The adaptation of flocking (Interactive Swarm Orchestra) and ISS (Interactive
simulations for the creation and control of algorithmic Swarm Space), which have been running for several
music constitutes a paradigmatic example of such a years at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound
transfer. [2][3][4] Even in their simplest form, dating Technology (ICST) of the Zurich University of the Arts
back to the seminal work by Craig Reynolds [12], these provide an ideal context to study these issues. This
self-organized multi-agent systems can give rise to a research combines conceptual considerations,
range of emergent phenomena, which can be exploited engineering developments and public disseminations in
for musical creation. Consequently, flocking simulations artistic venues. As part of the conceptual aspects of this
prove to possess a great appeal for musicians and research, we tried to define a set of fundamental
numerous examples of swarm-based music have been correspondences between swarms simulations and
created. [5][6][7][16][17] In most of these examples, the musical algorithms that can help inform artistic
flocking simulation employed is (almost) identical to strategies. As part of our engineering activities, we have
Craig Reynolds' original "Boids" system. Since that developed an open-source programming library entitled
flocking simulation was not designed with any musical “ISO Flock” that facilitates the creation of highly
application in mind, a significant part of the effort in the customized multi-agent simulations. Since then, this
creation of the swarm based piece needs to be invested library has progressed into a flexible environment for
into establishing a meaningful mapping between the real-time creation, configuration and modification of
simulation’s properties and the musical results. We multi-agent simulations that can control a wide range of
believe that by shifting the focus of the musical creation audio engines through OSC. [18] The main focus of the
away from the mapping issue towards the design of the ISO Flock library lies on the generic definition of agent
flocking simulation itself, the mapping challenge is and environment properties and behaviours. Due to this
diminished and the diversity of the musical possibilities generality, the library permits not only the
is increased. In this publication, we try to elucidate this implementation of ordinary flocking simulations, but
claim by describing three implementations of swarm can also be adapted to deal with a much broader range
based music pieces. of phenomena, that may for example be used to
implement physics simulations or even entirely fictitious and unique correspondence between the properties of
systems. The flexibility of the ISO Flock simulation each swarm simulation and its musical manifestation. At
library is intended to encourage a creative methodology the core of each piece is a musical concept that guides
that situates the customisation of a multi-agent the design of the flocking simulation, the musical
simulation directly within the musical composition composition and their mutual relationships. Similarly,
process. With this approach, the characteristics of the each visual composition transforms an important aspect
multi-agent simulation are as much the reflection of a of the swarm simulation into a key element in the
musical idea as would be the configuration of the audio graphic language.
engine and the definition of the mapping relationships.
3.1. Impacts
3. THREE SWARM PIECES
Starting from a strongly interactive premise, the
In the context of an exhibition entitled “Milieux
algorithm in this piece explores the possibility of a
Sonores” which was curated by Marcus Maeder and
hierarchical field of relationships within several flocks,
shown in 2009 in the "Walcheturm" exhibition space in
representative, in some ways of the interdependence
Zürich and in 2010 in the “Gray Area Foundation for the
within an ecosystem or food chain. On a second level
Arts” in San Francisco, a set of three interactive swarm
the perceptually most significant events are extracted
based audiovisual compositions were created by the
from the continuous flow of data of all the agent's
authors. [1] Each of the three compositions is based on a
motions and used as the fundamental impulses for the
specific swarm simulation and a musical and visual
music. (See Figure 1.)
composition, which are both controlled by that swarm
There are three types of entities present in the "Impacts"
simulation. The musical compositions are spatialised via
model: the first type of agent is the attractor. Its
a twenty speakers three-dimensional Ambisonic
behaviour is fully dependant on the visitor’s action since
projection array. [13] Interactivity is provided via a
it can't move by itself but is displaced by the visitor's
touch-sensitive surface, which allows visitors to directly
touch. The attractors' positions are constrained to a plane
manipulate some of the simulated agents and thereby
within the simulation's three-dimensional space in order
affect the swarm-based generative mechanisms that
to be coherent with the gestural interaction space. The
underlie the audio-visual compositions. The visual
agents of the secondary swarm react to the attraction
compositions are projected onto two of the pentagonal
forces of the first swarm and also influence their own
surfaces of the structure and fill the visitor's field of
kind. They themselves serve as attractors to the agents
view. Each composition is structured into several stages
within the third swarm, which exhibits the same
that are characterized by distinct simulation behaviours
behaviours as the secondary agents but on a lower
and audio-visual aesthetics. They transition from one
hierarchical level. The behaviours of the agents within
stage to the next according to a simple state machine
the second and third swarms are based on the classic
mechanism that takes both the duration of a particular
attraction, evasion, alignment paradigm [12], but are
state and the current activity level in the visitor’s
parameterized in such a manner as to create visually and
interaction into account.
musically interesting dynamic motion patterns.
The main emphasis in the creation and exhibition of the
three pieces is placed on the development of a specific

Figure 1. Schematics of the swarm music piece “Impacts”. The hierarchy of the swarm simulations is depicted on the left side.
The intermediate mapping stage performs the analysis of swarm behavior and generates the control events and data for the
musical engine, which is shown on the right.
 being located in certain sectors of the surround field.
The granular shadow notes create a cloud on the trails of
the agents after each impact. Since they get repeatedly
triggered during the escape starting from an impact until
they reach the largest spatial displacement, a noticeable
perceptual widening of the pitch-space occurs. Finally
the spatial positions of the swarm agents are stretched
from low Euclidian positions higher onto the surround
sphere in order to make height information perceptually
more apparent. This is necessary as a consequence of the
fact that the agents of the second or third swarm will
seldom gain great height, since the primary attractors
only evolve on the ground plane of the simulation space.
The visualisation re-interprets the idea of impacts and
escape points by tracing them into overlapping
Figure 2. Flowspace installation showing the flock and dynamically changing Delaunay triangulations and
visualisation for “Impacts”. furthermore shows widening and fading concentric
circles around the points of impact end escape. (See
The main feature extracted from this behaviour is Figure 2.)
selected for its expressive qualities. As the title of the
piece implies, the impacts or (near)-collisions between
3.2. Flow
agents are used to generate the discrete events that form
the main part of the musical "Gestalt" of the In the second example piece, the musical idea centres on
composition. An earlier working title of the piece was the establishment of periodically changing agent-
swarm-piano, as these discrete events are rendered with neighbour relationships that are rendered audible with
normal piano samples. [15] The occurrences of this key rhythmical musical structures.
moment within the perceptual scope of a single agent The simulation implements two types of flocks: a
are made musically apparent by triggering the sound primary flock that consists of eight agents whose
event. The reciprocal of the proximity event is the predominantly static properties are responsible for the
moment when the farthest point on the escape tangent existence of stable spatial patterns, and a secondary
from the point of impact is reached. This again flock consisting of 50 highly mobile agents that gives
emphasizes a key moment from the perspective of a rise to continually changing spatial patterns. The stable
single agent and triggers a second type of event. In the neighbourhood relationships among the agents in the
true spirit of emergent structures, the mixture of all of primary flock establish a network of interconnected
these events alone is what generates the texture of force lines to which agents from the secondary flock
sounds, which is characteristic of this piece. The overall respond. This response consists in an initial attraction
condition of the musical domain reflects the state of the towards and subsequent tangential acceleration along the
entire model, where no global control is applied neither closest of the interconnected lines. As a result, the
to the individual entities nor to the sound producing agents of the secondary flock tend to settle into one or
algorithms. several cyclical trajectories that cause them to encounter
The music consists of a background layer of Ambisonic agents from the primary flock in a periodical fashion.
ambience recorded with a "Soundfield" microphone in (See Figure 3.)
the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. This is reproduced on
the 20-channel dodecahedral speaker array, which forms
the installations space. The individual collision events in
the swarm simulation trigger piano samples on impact
and a granular echo of the same pitch when the escape
point is reached. A simple state machine that tracks the
level and duration of user interaction controls the choice
of pitches: the higher the level of interaction, the more
active the entire swarm simulation becomes and the
richer and more dissonant the pitch-set will be. The
pitches are grouped into eight groups, one for each agent
in the primary attractor swarm. The second and third
swarm contain 32 agents each and are assigned to
different pitch registers. The secondary swarm activates
the lower register and the higher pitches reflect impacts
and escape points for the third swarm. Since the note-
events are spatialised according to the position of the
Figure 3. Still image of the swarm simulation for the
generating agents, these pitch clusters are perceivable as
swarm music piece “Flow”.
When the secondary agents approach the primary gradually accumulated and until they trigger changes in
agents, their movement becomes affected by a magnetic the overall state of the musical and visual piece. This
force that acts over a short distance and whose direction state affects the regularity of the cyclical trajectories and
and strength depends on the magnitude and sign of the the strength and distance of the magnetic force effects.
two agents’ respective “charge” properties. The This is achieved by changing the properties of several
periodicity of the secondary agents' repetitive behaviours of the secondary flock: the strength of the
encounters with the primary agents forms the basis for neighbour line-following behaviour, the strength of the
the creation of the rhythmical structures in the emerging vertical acceleration behaviour, and the strength and
musical piece. The rhythmical sound events consist of distance of the magnetic interaction behaviour. The
sine waves that are combined via granular synthesis. combination of these changes alters the probability and
These grains are triggered whenever an agent of the stability of the rhythmical patterns and the amount of
secondary flock gets sufficiently close to an agent in the fluctuation in the texture of the individual sound events.
primary flock. The duration, fundamental frequency,
harmonic frequencies and amplitude of the sine waves 3.3. Membranes
contained within these grains depend on the position of
the primary agent, the distance between primary agent In this example, the relationship between the swarm
and secondary agent and the secondary agent’s velocity simulation and sound generation technique is
and jerk. (See Figure 4.) The acoustic spatialisation of characterized by a conclusiveness, which stems from the
the grains is determined by the position of the primary fact that they are both based on a model of the same
agent. The rhythmical structure and melodic motive of physical phenomenon: the behaviour of interconnected
the triggered sounds is fairly stable as long as the springs.
primary agents maintain their positions and the As in the "Flow" example, the flocking simulation
secondary agents have settled into a particular cyclic consists of two types of flocks, a primary mostly
movement. Otherwise the acoustic texture of the stationary flock and a secondary mobile flock. The
triggered sounds is very sensitive to perturbations in the secondary flock implements a mass-spring system. Here,
secondary agents’ response to the magnetic force the agents represent point masses that are connected to
effects. The relationship between the static and dynamic their neighbours via elastic springs. When left
flocks leads to the emergence of the musical motifs on undisturbed, the interconnected springs form a stable
two temporal levels, within the short time frame of an network that pushes the secondary agents into an even
individual sound’s texture and within the longer time distribution across the simulation space. (See Figure 5.)
window of the rhythmically recurring line. In this situation, small random movements of the
The influence of the visitor’s interaction with the touch secondary agents only minimally perturb the network.
sensitive surface occurs on two levels. As an immediate The stable network state can be disrupted by the
effect, the visitors can manually change the positions of repulsive effect of agents in the primary flock. As the
the primary agents and thereby alter the rhythmic sonic secondary agents evade the primary agents, some of the
lines that result from the appearance of the secondary connected neighbours move beyond the breaking
agents' adapted cyclic movements. As a more indirect distance of the springs. Consequently, these springs are
and long-term effect, the visitor’s activity levels are

Figure 4. Schematics of the swarm music example entitled “Flow”. The characteristics of the swarm simulation are depicted
on the left side. The musical architecture is shown on the right. The dsp chain is shown a solid arrows. The mapping
relationships between the swarm simulation and the music engine is depicted as dashed arrows.
 destroyed. As a consequence of these behaviours, the
musical result is a combination of a diffuse musical
background and discrete bright sound events that take
place in direct correlation with the occurrences inside
the swarm simulation. (See Figure 6.)
As in the "Flow" example, the visitors can interact with
the piece by both directly changing the position of the
primary agents and affecting the state of the musical
installation via their accumulated activity. The
correspondence between interaction and musical
outcome is directly perceivable since the changing
position of the primary agents causes the disruption and
recreation of springs. These spring events are clearly
visible in the graphical display of the swarm simulation
on the touch surface and are also clearly audible in the
Figure 5. Still image of the swarm simulation for the
swarm music piece “Membranes”.
musical result. The overall activity state in the
installation affects the mass and movement of the
removed from the simulation. New springs are formed secondary agents, as well as the stiffness, rest length and
whenever two secondary agents that haven't yet reached breaking length of the springs. These gradual changes
their maximum number of spring connections get alter the loudness of the sustained but weak spring
sufficiently close to each other. oscillations and affect the occurrence, intensity, and
The musical algorithm employs the non-linear model of distortion of the impulse sounds.
a physical spring as basis for sound synthesis. [11] Each
of these acoustic springs corresponds to a spring in the 4. DISCUSSION
secondary flock. The movement of the secondary agents
drives the excitement of the acoustic springs. The The description of the three swarm based pieces serves
acoustic spatialisation of the springs' audible excitement as an illustration of some of the musical possibilities that
is determined by the centre position of the spring. When arise when creative decisions are applied not only in the
the secondary flock has settled into a stable spring design of the audio generation techniques and the
network, the excitement of the acoustic springs is very mapping schemata but especially in the customisation of
weak. This type of excitement creates a diffuse acoustic the swarm simulations. Each of the three pieces is based
texture. When a new spring is created, a corresponding on a particular musical core idea that links the design of
acoustic spring is instantiated and becomes audible via a the swarm simulation, the swarm-to-music mapping, and
strong but brief impulse excitation. A similarly strong the specific controls of the musical processes. The
and brief excitation is triggered, whenever an agent "Impacts" example establishes a correlation between
spring and the corresponding acoustic spring are hierarchically dependant swarm agents' collision events

Figure 6. Schematics of the swarm music example entitled “Membranes”. The swarm simulation is shown on the left, the musical
architecture on the right and the mapping relationship in between.
and the triggering of individual piano notes. The “Flow” 4.2. General Structure and Dynamics
example links periodic repetitions in the spatial
distributions of agents with rhythmical patterns. The Swarm simulations offer an exemplary application of a
“Membranes” example employs models of physical model building approach that focuses not so much on
springs both for the swarm simulation and the sound the accurate reproduction of a specific natural
synthesis technique in order to create a perceptual and occurrence but rather tries to identify general,
aesthetic proximity between the two. underlying principles of organisation for an entire
category of phenomena. In particular, this approach
explores how principles of self-organisation influence
4.1. Specific Strategies
the emergence of qualitatively different characteristics
For all three pieces, we created a distinct swarm on a higher structural level. A musical engagement with
simulation that matches a particular musical idea. the principles and capabilities of swarm simulations
Despite of this, the resulting swarm simulations still enables the exploration of these algorithmic systems in
share many properties with the time-honoured "Boids" order to serve as a form-generating process in
model. The individual agents remain highly simplified composition.
objects that do not possess any form of anatomy nor The difference between artificial intelligence and
maintain any form of adaptive behaviour or internal artificial life agents lies in the learning and adaptation
dynamics. The spatial and temporal properties of each capabilities of the former and the emergent, bottom-up
swarm are predominantly dependent on neighbourhood local rules that lead to expression of complex overall
forces such as attraction, repulsion and alignment among "Gestalts" by the latter. When using flocking algorithms
its agents. Nonetheless we believe that each swarm for musical compositions, the challenge lies primarily in
simulation successfully captures a unique combination finding a set of simple agent rules and behaviours that
of agent characteristics, swarm behaviour and musical can generate as much musical potential as possible.
results. The selection of the behaviours on the one hand
The following elements emphasize those musical generates the overall structure of the flock; the
elements that best express our specific compositional weighting of the different behaviours on the other hand
strategy on the simulation, mapping and musical levels: determines the current dynamics of the simulation. At
– By observing the activity of those behaviours, which the beginning of the compositional method lies the
are dependent on very close proximity relationships recognition of a structural similarity that is shared by a
between neighbouring agents, discrete events can be particular swarm simulation and an intended musical
extracted. These discrete events can be exploited in the process. The awareness for such a similarity informs the
mapping strategy and the musical algorithm. design of the behavioural characteristics of the swarm
– Continuous changes in agent parameters on the other and the composition of the musical algorithms. These
hand can easily be mapped to equally continuous should be implemented simultaneously in order to
changes in musical parameters. reflect each other. The implementation of the mapping
– As an extension of the original swarm concept, it can relationship between the flocking algorithm and the
be useful to not only endow agents with properties that musical processes however, follows as a consequence of
are shared by the entire flock, but also to give the agents the previous choices. This compositional strategy works
individually distinctive traits. Thus the combination of well in the case of non-adaptive swarm simulations and
shared and unique agent properties serves the purpose of swarm-music relationships. Although these types of
balancing the perception of homogeneity and pieces are only capable of expressing a limited aesthetic
individuality in the musical "Gestalt". range, they manage to convey a musical idea quite
– The simulation of multiple interdependent swarms clearly.
with distinct behaviours influences the creation of
musical patterns on different temporal scales. Swarms 4.3. Adaptation and Interaction
that settle into stable spatial arrangements control
equally stable musical structures, whereas highly mobile In order to increase the diversity without sacrificing the
swarms may generate more dynamic and brief musical particularity of the musical result, an external
forms. mechanism for the alteration of the swarm and music
– The spatial dynamics and coherence of flocking agents characteristics can be added. As is the case in the three
lends itself to control of the periphonic positioning of examples described in this paper, such an external
musical elements. By establishing a clearly perceivable mechanism may be implemented as a finite state
causal relationship between the position of the visitor’s machine. The interaction with a viewer can act as a
touch gesture, the agents’ spatial distribution and the disturbance or as a new impulse for an otherwise stable
spatialisation of the resulting musical events, the basis state. An interesting aspect of the interactive situation is
for an intuitive interaction is created. the fact that human behaviour interferes with the
emergent swarm behaviour and begins to form a meta-
system, that might exhibit different states than the
purely closed world of simulation.
4.4. Further Ideas an infrared diffuse illumination setup. [14] The touch
sensitive area consists of a textile surface with an acrylic
It would be very interesting to explore how altering or plate underneath to provide mechanical support. The
expanding some of these classical swarm simulation textile is transparent to infrared light and acts as a screen
properties can extend the musical possibilities of for the video display. A camera and two infrared light
swarms. What follows are ideas for a few fundamentally sources are placed on the back of the installation. For the
different types of flock-music relationships: rear-projection, three ultra short-throw projectors are
– By drawing from a musical landscape metaphor, a placed on the outside of the dodecahedron.
swarm-music relationship could be implemented in
which it is not the agents themselves that control the 6. CONCLUSION
musical processes but rather the properties of an
artificial environment. This environment is changed via The simultaneous design of swarm simulations and
the agents' activities, for example by stygmergic musical algorithms for the creation of interactive pieces
interactions (environmental communications). is a fortunate case of coinciding concepts and methods.
– Agents can be endowed with adaptive traits that Most musical applications of flocking algorithms start
change within different time frames (physiological, from a well-known static flocking behaviour and adapt
learning, evolutionary) and thereby drive the evolution or merely map the musical algorithm retroactively to the
of a musical piece on different time scales. information generated by the simulation. In this paper
– A swarm simulation could incorporate some aspects of we show that a more concise form of relationship is
multi-agent simulations that model the diffusion of possible. A generic flocking simulation environment,
cultural trends or political opinions. Such a simulation which permits the expression of varying degrees of
may give rise to musical patterns in which consensus- complexity, is combined with a development of
based dominant motives emerge from initially very algorithms for both domains. These are based on one
diverse musical elements. unified concept. The normally essential task of
– A two-way relationship between the swarm simulation designing a powerful mapping to mediate between two
and the musical results could be established by separate systems becomes insignificant in comparison to
endowing agents with the capability to perceive aspects the union achieved by conceptually joining the systems
of the acoustic output. As a consequence, the agents in the early stages of the design process. The three
would respond in such a way that certain quantifiable pieces we discuss serve to illustrate our methods and
musical criteria would be optimized. show how an extended link between swarm and music
algorithms can be achieved in practise.
5. TECHNICAL DETAILS
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