Guest Lecture: Tracy Redhead
16. Juni 2026, 17.00 Uhr Tangible Music Lab & Online
Das Tangible Music Lab lädt zum Gastvortrag von Tracy Redhead.
Songwriting as a System: The Semantic Machine, a Song That Changes with
the World Around You
Recorded songs are often defined by repetition: one structure, one set of lyrics, one definitive version. This talk proposes an alternative model of songwriting through Transmutable Music, an overarching term for music that can change in response to data, interaction, system behaviour, and contextual information, creating new kinds of listening experiences. The talk presents /The Semantic Machine/, a mobile-app artwork and song-based transmutable composition developed by Tracy Redhead in collaboration with Florian Thalmann. The project began at Queen Mary University of London as part of the FAST project and has since developed into a public-facing artwork and compositional case study for transmutable songwriting. /The Semantic Machine/ generates different versions of the same authored work according to the listener’s location, time of day, and weather. The talk will include a demonstration of the app, which will be available for download. Rather than functioning as an infinite generator, the work is composed through authored musical layers, vocal treatments, lyrical variants, and visual materials that can blend and recombine while preserving the identity of the song. Drawing on Redhead’s book /Interactive Technologies and Music Making: Transmutable Music/ (Routledge, 2024), the talk considers how songwriting can involve not only musical material, but also the design of responsive systems: how meaning shifts, how coherence is maintained, and how a recorded song can remain recognisably itself across change.
Tracy Redhead is a musician, composer, and researcher working across songwriting, recorded music, interactive technologies, and creative
practice. She is Senior Lecturer at the UWA Conservatorium of Music, where she teaches Electronic Music and Sound Design and Contemporary Popular Music. She is the author of /Interactive Technologies and Music Making: Transmutable Music/ (Routledge, 2024), and co-writer of /Born Global: Australian Music Exports/. Her research explores how recorded music can become dynamic, adaptive, and context-aware, while her practice as a recording artist informs her approach to songwriting and technological experimentation. Her creative work has been presented internationally at Ars Electronica and Music Tech Fest, and her current research investigates songwriting, data, and interactive forms of recorded music.
