Representing and remotivating musical processes: Modeling a recurrent musical ecology

Abstract

This paper considers musical behavior in the context of an ecological dynamics, wherein the holistic experiencer adapts to the musical environment of which she/he is an active participant. As the result of this participation, a neural representation is developed which not only allows for recognition and representing ('making newly present') of previous musical situations, but also initiates remotivation, i.e. active anticipatory influence on music perception and action, based on the history of previous experiences. This system in which the experiencer influences the musical environment has a further recursive effect on the representation itself. The above dynamics is demonstrated by a connectionist, self‐organizing network model. Pilot experiments show that a dynamics of this type tends to move towards regular repetition of progressively shorter and more generalized musical sequences and an overall representational economy. This tendency may ultimately proceed to the point of ‘autistic’ behavior, unless the self‐motivated drive is merged with and regulated by the environmental ‘reality’.