Evan X. Merz

musician/technologist/human being

Seven Solos Composed by Cellular Automata

I’ve collected several pieces composed using cellular automata into one package.

This collection of seven solos for any instrument was created by computer programs that simulate cellular automata. A cellular automaton is a mathematical system containing many cellular units that change over time according to a predetermined rule set. The most famous cellular automaton is Conway’s Game of Life. Cellular automata such as Conway’s Game of Life and the ones used to compose these pieces are capable of generating complex patterns from a very small set of rules. These solos were created by mapping elementary cellular automata to music data. One automaton was mapped to pitch data and a second automaton was mapped to rhythm data. A unique rule set was crafted to generate unique patterns for each piece.

Download the score for Seven Solos Composed by Cellular Automata for any instrument by Evan X. Merz.

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Evan X. Merz

Evan X. Merz holds degrees in computer science and music from The University of Rochester, Northern Illinois University, and University of California at Santa Cruz. He works as a programmer at a tech company in Silicon Valley. In his free time, he is a programmer, musician, and author. He makes his online home at evanxmerz.com and he only writes about himself in third person in this stupid blurb.