Fuzzy IDEAS: using fuzzy logic to make sense of avant-garde music
Creators: name: Suiter, Wendy
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2017

description: Current approaches to understanding ‘art’ music have established procedures that address either the music or listener responses. However, the problem remains of simultaneously addressing the reality that music is intangible unfolding aural process that can only perceived through listening along with the inescapable subjectivity of analytical decisions. In the late 20th century, computer scientists developed fuzzy logic to allow machines to imitate human thinking processes when solving problems involving imprecision and uncertainty. While fuzzy logic is designed to explicitly incorporate human subjectivity in decision-making, it did not initially have any connection with music. However, the principles underlying fuzzy logic suggest that this new procedure can be useful and practical approach to creating visual representations of the multi-dimensional subjective nature of a single experience of listening. This innovation in music analysis can simultaneously address the twin challenges in musicology of ‘seeing’ relevant technical aspects of the music and ‘seeing’ listener responses as they unfold over time. This thesis presents a new method of analysis, Fuzzy IDEAS (Fuzzy Inclusive Dialectical Expression Analysis System). This new method is designed to be transferable across different styles of art music and across listeners. Therefore, the new method bypasses the music score, yet is systematic while being extremely flexible and adaptable. Further, the new method is a broad open-ended approach to making sense of music on the basis of any idea, not only emotional response. This is particularly important in relation to avant-garde music because focussing on emotional response is too narrow.Fuzzy IDEAS is a formalised method for making sense of an individual piece of music using qualitative information from a single personal experience of listening to this music. This method requires a transparent yet systematic way of documenting personal insights and technical observations while recognising that this will be incomplete and subjective information. This multi-stage process starts with conscious articulation of the implications of any information known to the listener about the music they are going to hear. The next stage is collecting the qualitative listening observations while listening to the music. Then the analyst uses the principles of fuzzy logic set theory to convert these qualitative listening observations into fuzzified data, which is then converted into visual form. It is this visual representation of the experience of the music that is used to provide evidence for how technical aspects of this music suggests an idea.Because Fuzzy IDEAS is designed to be inclusive, transparent, systematic and transferable across different pieces of music the new method is explained using my own experience of listening to four pieces of avant-garde art music. The data collection and coding methods have also been evaluated by using the method with three other listeners: a skilled composer, an enthusiastic listener, and another listener who dislikes avant-garde music intensely. The findings show that Fuzzy IDEAS is an engaging, constructive and open-ended method for making sense of music composed using any materials, techniques and forms, and that Fuzzy IDEAS is transferable across information from a variety of listeners. This new method can thereby contribute directly to compositional pedagogy, and music appreciation. Fuzzy IDEAS opens the possibility of new data collection strategies for academic research into general listener responses, or to inform the marketing of Western art music. Fuzzy IDEAS also has promise for new technological applications to provide additional modes of listener engagement during concerts, contributing to audience development for avant-garde art music.