Media Scores : A framework for composing the modern-day Gesamtkunstwerk

Abstract

Media Scores provide a theoretical and technical means to orchestrate multiple modalities in the creation of expressive works of art and performance. New technologies afford numerous opportunities to tell stories and create expressive artworks through a variety of media. However, the tools of planning, composition, design, and creation of these works remain disjoint with respect to the artwork's constituent disciplines and from the final experience. Media Scores extend the metaphor of a musical score to other modalities in order to facilitate the process of authoring and performing multimedia compositions, providing a medium through which to realize a modern-day Gesamtkunstwerk. Research into the representation and encoding of expressive intent provides the conceptual underpinnings for the development of novel interfaces for composing and performing with Media Scores. Using such a tool, the composer is able to shape an artistic work that may be performed through human and technological means in a variety of media and utilizing various modalities of expression. Media Scores offer the possibility of authoring content that incorporates live performance data and the potential for audience participation and interaction. This paradigm bridges the extremes of the continuum from composition to performance, allowing for improvisatory compositional acts at performance-time. The Media Score also provides a common point of reference in collaborative productions, as well as the infrastructure for the real-time show control of any technologies used during a live performance.