Can electronic computer calculate the formula for a successful melodious ? British theatergoers will soon find out . grant toThe Guardian , UK TV channel Sky Arts has commissioned the universe of a computer - generated musical , to premier at theArts Theaterin London in February 2016 .
EntitledBeyond the Fence , the melodious is a quislingism between world and simple machine . While computer sire elements of plot and score , humans created the stage dancing and staging . Lyrics , meanwhile , were a coaction between Nathan Taylor and Benjamin Till ( creators of 2014’sOur Gay marriage ceremony : The melodic ) , and a recurrent neuronic web organisation call The Cloud Lyricist .
The labor was designed as an experiment in computer creativity , and Sky Arts decease into yield unsure exactly what form of melodious — if any — a computer could generate . “ It is a mad experimentation , ” manufacturer Catherine Gale toldThe Guardian . “ No one has ever done it before and we really did n’t make out what was going to bechance when we started . ”
Before beginning work on the melodic itself , the team began with datum analysis to see out just what distinguishes a hit musical from a flop . By inputting information from preceding musicals , researchers from the Machine Learning Group at Cambridge University identified the worked up social organization , preferences , and cast sizes that were historically most successful .
Drawing on that data , the musical team used the University of London’sWhat - If Machineto produce key themes and part , enlisted a computer organization called PropperWryter to build the narrative , and hired computer music researcher Nick Collins to provide a computer - generated score .
The result , according to Gale , was surprisingly coherent : “ It see like what is coming together is really something which is quite traditional … it is not a crazy , avant garde , mad show . ”
Set in the eighties , the musical comedy accompany a woman and her daughter know in Greenham Common Women ’s Peace Camp ( a real coterie mark up by activist mathematical group “ Women for Life on Earth ” in the ' 80s to protest nuclear weapon ) . When the authorities threaten to take the woman ’s child , she finds an “ unlikely ally ” in US Airman Jim Meadow .
Whether the musical is any good or not remains to be realise . Gale reason that , either way , the experiment was a utile learning experience , proving that computers can be a worthful part of the creative cognitive operation . She toldThe Guardian , “ It ’s like hold up a mirror because when you endeavor to get a system to be creative … It challenges you to ask : ‘ How do we do it ? ’ ”
[ h / t : The Guardian ]
