Vibrant algorithms: Sonic collaborations with the living environment

Abstract Embedding formalised procedures into music – whether through mathematical, semantic or even gamified approaches – has been a well-documented practice since the first half of the 20 th century. Many such practices have since fallen under the collective moniker of ‘algorithmic composition’, which encompasses an array of rules-based approaches to music and sonic arts. Nevertheless, there is a realm of algorithmic composition that is often overlooked; musical practices that interact with the more-than-human world often contain innate algorithmic properties. Such properties, however, subvert orthodox categorisations in that their axioms are not of human origin. In other words, music created in conversation with the natural world will often acquire algorithmic properties from the natural world. This article questions whether a phenomenological distinction should be made for algorithmic properties such as these, arguing that their distinction within algorithmic composition is theoretically and ethically sound. The neologism, vibrant algorithm, is proposed as a blanket term for this practice, and its operational features are defined. In doing so, several diverse musical examples are discussed, prompting further ethical queries both within and beyond music about the sentience and agency of the living environment – including entities that have not been conventionally regarded as animate by Westernised and urbanised worldviews.