Designing sounds and spaces: interdisciplinary rules and proportions in generative stochastic music and architecture

This paper compares stochastic processes used for designing sound and space: an interdisciplinary transference of generative techniques. The mathematical conceptualisation and graphical visualisation by expert architect, Le Corbusier and expert designer and composer, Iannis Xenakis form a single basis applicable to generative systems in two disparate disciplines. Expertise is related to a form of transformational analogy and to designing the grammatical, generative system rather than the artefact itself. Le Corbusier and Xenakis are considered from two angles: to compare the way in which interdisciplinary and conceptualised design planning is implemented by expert designers; and to examine the potential for generative systems in a multi-disciplinary context. The usefulness of the latter lies in connecting disparate disciplines and as a basis for generative computation spanning discreet design domains, for example multimedia installation design. The comparison also highlights the extent of expert designers' formalisation and conceptualisation that occurs graphically and mathematically before implementation in the chosen design domain. It is interesting that the designers' focus lies in developing the generative system and defining its relation to musical or architectural grammar, rather than in designing the artefact itself.