BotBop was formed in 2019 at the special request of the Belgian arts center BOZAR in Brussels. Its purpose was to explore new artistic directions in music, leveraging state-of-the-art techniques in artificial intelligence and live coding. Electronic wind instrumentalist and modular patching expert Andrew Claes, along with live coder Dago Sondervan, were selected to prepare a unique performance in co-production with Ars Electronica. Kasper Jordaens, an arts and R&D engineer, joined the team to provide further technical expertise in AI and machine learning, marking the birth of BotBop.

In this second iteration of the BotBop "Integers and Strings", Dago Sondervan, Andrew Claes, and Kasper Jordaens reunited for a new challenge: BOZAR sought to create a co-production with the renowned Sónar Festival for a performance at the S+T+ARTS AI and Music Festival. For this occasion, they explored new possibilities, including the integration of a classical string quartet performing on-the-fly generated scores "prima vista". This served as a vehicle for a real-time, computer-assisted live audio-visual performance.

The goal was to create an interactive environment where improvisation and computer-aided composition could seamlessly intertwine. The ongoing development of BotBop’s custom software—primarily using open-source tools—enables real-time score generation and its extrapolation into individual parts for the string quartet. A fully real-time generated score will guide the quartet, with Jordaens visually manipulating and projecting it onto a backdrop screen. This adds a layer of immersion through graphic art, highlighting the generated content.

The performance consisted of five distinct movements, each exploring a specific idea. Various strategies, such as Euclidean divisions, Fibonacci sequences, and other mathematical structures, were used to generate rhythms. Meanwhile, AI-moderated melodic content, driven by machine learning algorithms, controlled adjustments and mutations in the generated compositions. A wide range of harmonic systems was evaluated, drawing inspiration from contemporary masters like Bartók and Shostakovich. This fusion created a futuristic hybrid of electronic and acoustic aesthetics.

The performers on stage were: Andrew Claes, Dagobert Sondervan, Kasper Jordaens, Pieter Jansen, Herlinde Verjans, Jasmien Van Hauthem, and Romek Maniewski-Kelner.

This was a co-production of Sónar and BOZAR.

Two additional performances of this project were presented at BOZAR and at the International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2023.