The world premiere of a new musical named Beyond the Fence will be able to inform the industry as to whether a computer could ever create a successful musical. It is a question that may be met with much opposition, and many questions about whether any musical production would therefore lose its integral human connection and influence.
Beyond the Fence is a musical conceived and mostly crafted by a computer, with its title alone suggesting a stepping away from the norms and into unknown territory. However, Beyond the Fence actually tells the story of Mary and her daughter at Greenham Common peace camp in 1982. Committed to stopping the arrival of US missiles, Mary must face the possibility of losing her child to the authorities, when a US Airman becomes an ally.
The musical has been created following a statistical study of how hit musicals achieve their success, and the combination of factors that led to this. Dr James Robert Lloyd, Dr Alex Davies and Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter from Cambridge University have analysed aspects of musicals from cast size to backdrop to emotional structure, to determine the computer actions necessary to create a successful musical via a computer. Many may argue, however, that a musical's success is determined by the audience's perceived connection to the production rather than statistics.
The premise 'What if a wounded soldier had to learn how to understand a child in order to find true love?' was chosen for the generated musical, following several premises being generated by the What-If Machine at Goldsmiths, University of London. The plot structure was then also created through a computer and the book and lyrics were written around the plot. The music was provided by Dr Nick Collins, who created a computer composition system he called Android Lloyd Webber.
Directed by Luke Sheppard, the show will run at the Arts Theatre in the West End between 22 February and 5 March 2016. The process of creating the work will be filmed and shown on Sky Arts as part of their series Computer Says Show.
First computer generated musical
The world premiere of a new musical named Beyond the Fence will be able to inform the industry as to whether a computer could ever create a successful musical. It is a question that may be met with much opposition, and many questions about whether any musical production would therefore lose its integral human connection and influence.
Beyond the Fence is a musical conceived and mostly crafted by a computer, with its title alone suggesting a stepping away from the norms and into unknown territory. However, Beyond the Fence actually tells the story of Mary and her daughter at Greenham Common peace camp in 1982. Committed to stopping the arrival of US missiles, Mary must face the possibility of losing her child to the authorities, when a US Airman becomes an ally.
The musical has been created following a statistical study of how hit musicals achieve their success, and the combination of factors that led to this. Dr James Robert Lloyd, Dr Alex Davies and Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter from Cambridge University have analysed aspects of musicals from cast size to backdrop to emotional structure, to determine the computer actions necessary to create a successful musical via a computer. Many may argue, however, that a musical's success is determined by the audience's perceived connection to the production rather than statistics.
The premise 'What if a wounded soldier had to learn how to understand a child in order to find true love?' was chosen for the generated musical, following several premises being generated by the What-If Machine at Goldsmiths, University of London. The plot structure was then also created through a computer and the book and lyrics were written around the plot. The music was provided by Dr Nick Collins, who created a computer composition system he called Android Lloyd Webber.
Directed by Luke Sheppard, the show will run at the Arts Theatre in the West End between 22 February and 5 March 2016. The process of creating the work will be filmed and shown on Sky Arts as part of their series Computer Says Show.