Linear Looping?

Above is a video showing a live performance using hardware. As may be clear this is obviously not a strictly linear process, there is a form of feedback loop going on in the ears and brain of the performer. As he takes in the sound he has created he is then using his brain to make judgments about what he should do next as a compositional decision. However this loop is purely optional, the system would still create sound even if the performer was not aware of the output material, for example if the output was fed to a speaker in another room! 

In order to move from the concept of interactive composing to composing interactions we must have ‘self-observing system’. That is, it must make changes to the output based on the input it receives from the environment surrounding it, of which it is an inherent part. This means that a feedback loop is created in which a human performer is not required but could instead be considered a part of the macro-environment in which the whole ‘performance’ takes place. 

A system of this nature could almost be considered self-aware, making changes to its output based on the input it’s receiving from its self. However a better description as used by Di Scipio is self-observing. as the computer does not know the relationship between the output sound and the input parameters it merely views them as separate sets of data.