M.E.S.H. - Navigating the Latent Space Through the Body-Instrument; Reclaiming One's Digital Traces in the Age of Large AI models
This paper introduces M.E.S.H., a gestural musical instrument that reclaims human agency and physical engagement in AI-assisted music creation. While large generative text-to-audio models often restrict individual artistic expression, M.E.S.H. utilizes neural networks in Max MSP as a co-creative mediator between bodily intent and sound. By placing the performer’s body at the center of the workflow, our research-creation project wishes to establish a novel relationship between biotechnology and algorithmic generation, one that actively confronts the ethical implications of biological data use within the corporate technology ecosystem. We evaluate the system across creative and ethical axes, using a live performance as one case study to demonstrate the dynamic negotiation of agency between musician and AI. Ultimately, we are sharing this framework as open software so that other artists can reappropriate their biometric data to create music that is highly personalized and physically engaged with the assistance of a small AI system.