European project · Citizen science research
Collective Music Experiment
A collective intelligence experiment in which the audience composed music online during the Sónar festival
About the project
Collective Music Experiment (CME) was a citizen science experiment on collective intelligence held at Sónar+D, the creativity and technology conference of Barcelona’s Sónar festival, from 12 to 14 June 2014. It was also known as Crowd-tivity.
The experiment asked two questions: can a group solve a complex problem that nobody could solve alone? And is the group more creative than its most talented member?
On a website built for the experiment, anyone could compose musical patterns on a sequencer, using sounds prepared by the musicians R de Rumba (DJ of Violadores del Verso) and Miguel Ángel Mercadal. A second sequencer showed, in real time, what their neighbours in the network were creating. Each participant could then drag the parts they liked best into their own piece. No musical knowledge was needed.
To study how the group behaved, participants were arranged in a grid-shaped network. In the first phase, each person could only swap patterns with their four nearest neighbours; in the second, with everyone. The process was anonymous, so that trust, reputation or fame would not influence decisions.
According to the SOCIENTIZE coordinator, around 200 people created and shared patterns during the festival. At the end, R de Rumba and Mercadal gave a live performance on the MarketLab stage using the patterns that had spread the most.
Project objectives
- Understand how large groups of people produce creative results collectively.
- Analyse knowledge creation, information selection and the evolution of collective intelligence in a network.
- Use music to reach audiences who rarely engage with science, and to collect real data.
- Bring experts and amateurs together, and raise awareness of citizen science.
- Openly publish the data, models and methods produced, for future research.
The role of Ibercivis
Fundación Ibercivis developed the experiment together with the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) at the University of Zaragoza, as part of the European project SOCIENTIZE, coordinated by BIFI. Ibercivis and BIFI presented the experiment at Sónar+D thanks to science communication grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
Our activities
- Design of the experiment and the web platform, with two sequencers and a real-time visualisation of the network.
- A stand at the Sónar+D MarketLab throughout the three days of the festival. The website and the stand were designed with the Zaragoza-based studio Undo Estudio.
- A closing performance by R de Rumba and Miguel Ángel Mercadal using the patterns composed by the audience.
- A short documentary about the experiment and citizen science, by Zaragoza filmmaker David Fernández.
- Media coverage: Aragón Radio, RTVE’s Siglo 21 programme, Heraldo de Aragón, El Periódico, Tercer Milenio and the European Commission’s Digital Agenda.
Project details
Type of project
European
Duration
12–14 June 2014
Funding
Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (science communication grants) and the European project SOCIENTIZE (European Commission)
Consortium
BIFI Institute at the University of Zaragoza, Fundación Ibercivis and the SOCIENTIZE project, with the musicians R de Rumba and Miguel Ángel Mercadal
Area
Citizen science research