How does it work?
For the minter, to add a chord into the composition is very simple and can be done by minting a new generative NFT "Subtraction" on fx(hash). Upon minting the ticket, the user has 7 days to turn it into a chord with selected parameters via the fx(hash) editor. The chords are free open editions until 20 August 2024, when the composition will be assumed as completed. The chords can be various and look like this (click run to start the NFT, then click anywhere on the chord to hear the sound):
When the chord with selected parameters (NFTs iteration) gets added to the collection, its features are exposed, which means they can be read in the piece's metadata via fx(hash) API.
Thanks to this capability, I was able to create a website that collects this data and assembles a continuous musical piece from the minted chords. On that website, one can play the composition in full and explore who are the current owners of the minted chords, by clicking on the chords in the context of the full composition.
The website is available under the address: https://www.adamlukawski.com/pages/apps/subtraction/
To add a next chord into the composition, mint a new "Subtraction" NFT here: https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/30997
The way chords are made in the generative music NFT "Subtraction" are inspired by the text-score "Subtraction" from the ImageAudio project of Zach Dawson, who commisioned a realisation of his text-score to be realised/"performed" in any form. Thus, each iteration of this NFT can be treated as a separate performance of that score. Read more about it in the description of the "Subtraction" NFT itself. Beyond the text-score realisation, I decided to assemble all of the editions into a continuous music composition.
Why doing such a thing?
The piece is an experiment, aesthetically rather linked to the tradition of contemporary music composition, using the grand piano sound samples to perform microtonal chords. Thus, the visualisation on the website that collects the chords is something in between the traditional spectrogram and a piano-roll. In this case, the displayed notes belonging to the chords, display the frequencies which are performed with the use of piano samples.
The experiment is to decentralise notions of creative agency, authorship, ontology, provenance, and ownership in music. While the way chords are made was inspired by a text-score of one composer, another composer decides to put them together based on certain parameters, which are then realised algorithmically and left to be triggered to the decision of the minters of each separate iteration (each separate chord). The creative agencies of composers, algorithms and minters are perhaps intermingled into something what Martin Zeilinger in his book "Tactical Entanglements: AI Art, Agency, Intellectual Property" calls a "posthumanist agential assemblage".
Decentralized Music?
If you are interested in learning more about related new concepts in generative music, music-philosophical investigations, and experiments, definitely check out my new book co-edited with Paulo de Assis "Decentralized Music: Exploring Blockchain for Artistic Research" which will be premiered on the 14th of August 2024 and published by CRC Press, Taylor&Francis. You can find this publication here: https://www.routledge.com/Decentralised-Music-Exploring-Blockchain-for-Artistic-Research/De-Assis-Lukawski/p/book/9781032602400#