The EPFL Pavilions space explores the history of algorithms in music in “Musica ex Machina”, on view until June 29, 2025 in Lausanne. This exhibition traces the evolution of music influenced by technological advances, from medieval theory to today’s artificial intelligence.
The “Musica ex Machina” exhibition explores the relationship between music and algorithms. A history that dates back to ancient Greece and the first systems of music notation.
It is at this moment that the melodies are transformed into data, as Martin Rohrmeier, director of the digital and cognitive musicology laboratory at EPFL, notes in the Vertigo program on September 20: “It is only when you have a symbolic system for rhythm, for timbres, tones that you can play with this system and manipulate the music, set rules, construct something.
Wonder and knowledge
Contrary to popular belief, algorithms are not an invention of the 21st century, as Paul Doornbusch, co-curator of the exhibition and adjunct professor of computer science at the University of Melbourne in Australia, explains: “The motivation for this exhibition was to show many of the algorithmic thinking behind music. It’s something that’s been around for several hundred years, but people aren’t necessarily aware of it.
We thus discover through works, audiovisual installations and historical documents a musical epic which goes from medieval theory to the present day.
From old music boxes to artificial intelligence, including automatons and electrical or even sensory instruments, the journey takes visitors on a journey that questions the role of the machine in musical creation and performance.
A question that is found in the very title of the exhibition: “Musica ex Machina”. Martin Rohrmeier motivates this choice: “We can understand it as a simple machine for making music or as an extension of thought, translated into computer language, as an algorithmic way of thinking about music”.
Demystifying music as artistic expression
The exposure may disturb lovers of romantic music. But it does not aim to demystify music as an artistic expression. It should even increase admiration for this mode of expression, according to Martin Rohrmeier: “I think what we are losing is the illusion of naive simplicity. The more you learn about a subject, the more admiration (…) increases, rather than decreases.”
With surprising anecdotes, the exhibition shows that in each era sciences have influenced musical creation. As in the case of Josquin Des Prés, a Renaissance composer who used theories of probability to compose a mass, well before the modern era.
Interaction and discovery
Visitors travel through centuries of musical history by manipulating ancient computing objects, discovering musical automata and musical programming devices accessible to the public. An interactivity that invites creation and would like to attract a wide audience, according to Paul Doornbusch’s wish: “We want to reach young people and present something that has not necessarily been seen before”.
Radio subject: Anne Gillot
Adaptation web: Sébastien Foggiato
“Musica ex Machina”, EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne, from September 20, 2024 to June 29, 2025.
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