Game, Set and Murphy

August 31, 2014 10:27 PM

James Murphy (formerly of LCD Soundsystem) has built an algorithm to musically interpret live data from the US Tennis Open which will create around 400 hours of music. All previous games can be listened to and each has a different flavour - it can get a little glitchy but try Djokovic vs Querry or Brengle vs Lisick for starters. Or have a play with the algorithm yourself.
posted by meech (7 comments total)

I think this would be more interesting in the other direction, forcing the tennis players to adhere to musical compositions
posted by thelonius at 5:27 AM on September 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Assuming the algorithm for the women's matches has a robust subroutine to remove the ridiculous grunting.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:47 AM on September 1, 2014

This is music that is only truly appropriate for a machine age

where art can only be created by variations in the algorithm and the structure is tied to the literal, note-by-note sounds of the event being interpreted

bing bong tinkle tinkle

The guy with the 24 million pixel camera does pretty good but he's certainly no Van Gogh
posted by saucy_knave at 9:04 AM on September 1, 2014

Hater here!

Saw this last night but waited to comment because my comment would likely have been deleted for being an overly-negative first comment.

I really hate this co-optation of music techno-hackery by mainstream boneheads. This reminds me of that nonsense Imogen Heap tried to do with the glove controllers, claiming it was some groundbreaking innovation (it wasn't) and then using said amazing groundbreaking innovation to make insipid, lifeless compositions that were an insult to talents of the actual programmers and engineers she hired to help her promote herself.

There is so much interesting/beautiful/compelling work being done with algorithms, hand-made gadgets, custom software, and the like by creative & imaginative people the world over.

And then this famous quasi-musician businessman comes along with an IBM promotional budget and gets all the attention.
posted by univac at 10:19 AM on September 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

univac, sounds cool - what should I be checking out?
posted by STFUDonnie at 11:55 AM on September 1, 2014

Your frustration at a certain thing being used by someone popular and a big multinational and that overshadowing the more interesting work of others is noted and appreciated.

Your assertion that James Murphy is a "quasi-musician" is absurd and, to me anyhow, offensive.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:56 AM on September 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

I doubt he actually built the algorithm, but I'm sure he chose the sounds. Could be neat in a Brian-Eno-Lite sort of way.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:07 PM on September 1, 2014