I was walking around today through the chaotic streets of Hong Kong with Bloom, Brian Eno's generative iphone app providing a soothing soundscape. It's hard to quantify how much joy something so simple can give - not to mention something that only costs $3.99. Bloom uses algorithyms to create and evolve patterns of sounds, at once random and yet strangely structured.

Generative systems are popping everywhere lately. You find them at the heart of complexity theory - the same science that lies behind networks, chaos theory and viral distribution. And they are particularly relevant to music. I caught an interesting exhibition at MoMa in New York a few weeks ago on the origins of music experimentation in the sixties when artists like John Cage used all manner of numeric or occult systems like the i-Ching to create what he called. “Indeterminate Music”. Media artist Toshio Iwai has also recently collaborated with Yamaha to create the Tenori-on, an innovative visual sequencer featuring a 16x16 matrix of LED switches that form a "visible music" interface. You can watch a cool video of Joi Ito playing with his one here. 


Although generative systems make for great toys and music applications, I get the sense that there is potentially for truly great art in all this. I was recently giving a talk at the New Media Days conference in Denmark. One of the other keynotes was Jonathan Harris, the creator of We Feel Fine. Watching the simple but profound results of an algorithm that tracks how people in the world are feeling based on blog entries that begin with 'I feel' was humbling and beautiful. 

If the greatest artists of our past were impresarios of the paintbrush and pencil, it's not inconceivable that the masterpieces of the future will be elegant lines of code.