Creative collaboration between audiences and musicians in Flock

Flock is a full-evening work for saxophone quartet, dancers, audience participation, video, and electronic sound. A computer vision system tracks the location of participants as they move around an open performance space, and custom software then uses that data to generate music notation, video animation, and electronic sound. In this paper, we discuss the project’s connection to previous work in large-audience creativity and multi-player gaming, and we outline the conception, design, and implementation of its computer vision system, real-time notation architecture, and collaborative structure. We evaluate the project’s success as measured by audience surveys from performances at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and the 01SJ Festival in San Jose, and we outline revisions to the work based on that feedback.