Kato, Mui. 2025. Investigating the Human-Machine Relationship in Contemporary Music-Making with Artificial Intelligence: Reconceptualising Liveness Beyond Recording Technology. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

This study examines the relationship between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in contemporary music-making that incorporates AI, through the lens of liveness. Towards this end, liveness is reconceptualised beyond its traditional association with recording technology, grounded in the dynamic, co-constitutive interactions between humans and technologies in shaping their respective roles. By situating relevant cases within broader contexts, the study positions AI’s impact as part of a historical continuum of musicians’ engagement with technologies.

The study comprises four parts. Part 1: Sampling and Material (Chapter 1) investigates sampling-based music production with AI. Through studying the cases of Nao Tokui, Uncanny Valley, and patten from a material-centric perspective, this part argues that interactions between humans and AI systems animate otherwise ‘dead’ sound materials. Part 2: Voice and the Human Body (Chapters 2-4) investigates the artistic use of artificial voice-sounds in the works of SKYGGE, Kode9, Ado, and Holly Herndon. This part reveals how these practices enable AI to challenge the voice’s traditional status as a symbol of the human body. Part 3: Resurrection and Reproduction (Chapters 5-6) explores how AI’s reproductive capacity was exploited in the virtual resurrection of a deceased singer in a project by Yamaha and NHK. This part emphasises human aspects of the production, such as the producers’ intentions and negotiations in realising the (re)production. Part 4: Improvisation and Recording (Chapters 7-8) considers how humans and AI co-shape improvisation through negotiation between past and present. Focusing on Shun Ishiwaka’s performance, this part examines how human producers leverage the limitations of improvisation systems, deviating from their inherent idiomaticity.

Through these investigations, which provide detailed accounts of the human-machine relationship in music-making, this study dismantles the myth of AI’s omnipotence while demonstrating how AI challenges traditional boundaries between humans and technology—the ongoing mutual mediation that underpins human life including music-making.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Keywords:	Human-Machine Relationship, Music-Making, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Liveness, Posthumanism, Technology
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Music
Date:	28 February 2025
Item ID:	38677
Date Deposited:	04 Apr 2025 12:36
Last Modified:	04 Apr 2025 12:36
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38677

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