The International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics Focus of the Symposium Superficially perceived, architecture and music appear to have little in common. Yet, in spite of all the obvious differences, architecture, in its structural essence, and in the process of its creation is probably more closely related to music than any other creative field. A rigorous and systematic investigation of the relationships between the two disciplines would form an extensive research undertaking.
Practical systems are pervasive within the arts.
Works of music, architecture, and dance, for example, encompass independent systems related to rhythm, harmony, and balance. These systems have been widely studied in isolation, but relatively little is known about the synergistic properties that result from their interdependence. The 2nd Annual Symposium on Systems Research in the Arts follows a highly successful initial session in the summer of 1999 devoted to music-related topics. Each provides an important contribution to the growing body of mathematical, computational, and general systems applications to systems research in music. Discussions at last year's conference revealed the interest of many participants in integrating all of the arts into one symposium for exploration of commonalities and differences among respective system methodologies.