DEVELOPING A PARAMETRIC SPATIAL DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL DRUMMING Jeremy J Ham Daniel Prohasky RMIT University jere- my@surfcoastarchitecture .com.au RMIT University daniel.prohasky@rmit.edu.au ABSTRACT This research operates at the intersection of music and spatial design within the context of improvised digital drumming. We outline a creative design research project founded on a series of affordance experiments that ex- plore the ways in which the tools of spatial design can inform understandings of ‘referent (Pressing 1987)’ im- provised patterns and phrases employed by experienced drummers. We outline the stages and process of devel- opment of a parametric computational framework using software from the spatial design industry to provide af- fordance (Gibson 1979) to understanding the complexi- ties of drum improvisation. The ‘ImprovSpace’ Grasshopper script, operating within Rhino3D TM enables the 3D spatialization of digital drum-based improvisations wherein the parameters of drum notes, duration and velocity all can be flexibly ma- nipulated. Drum phrases and patterns can be compared individually and clusters of repeated elements can be found within a larger corpus of improvisations. The framework enables insights into the specific attributes that constitute individual style including micro-timing, rubato and other elements of style. It is proposed that, by bringing these improvisations into visual and spatial do- main in plan, elevation and isometric projections, a theo- retic musico-perspectival hinge may be deconstructed that provides insights for visually and spatially dominant musicians within reflective, educational and other con- texts. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper reports on early PhD project work founded on the practice of creative digital drumming as examined through a lens of spatial design. This research centres on the first author’s creative practice as an architect and im- provising drummer. Creative drumming, in this context, is the advanced playing of the drum kit with the express intention of exploring boundaries of timing, polyrhythm and space across solo and group contexts. Positioning the research on the intersection of the disciplines of music and spatial design allows theoretical, technical, represen- tational and computational concepts and methodologies from one discipline to be used to examine the other. We are primarily interested in the ways in which spatial de- sign tools can add to the body of knowledge in under- standing musical improvisation. The Field of Musical Improvisation (FMI) (Cobussen, Frisk et al. 2010) provides the theoretical and practical context within which creative drumming improvisations are performed. The FMI describes ‘the precise progress and structure of an improvisation (as) essentially capri- cious,’ ‘between order and disorder, between structure and chaos, between delineation and transgression or ex- tension’. In developing this parametric framework, we are attempting to make finite some of these aspects of the ‘infinite’ art of improvisation. There has been a long history of architects at- tempting to translate music into architectural form and space. Martin (1994), in ‘Architecture as a Translation of Music’ established a model for the examination of music and architecture on three levels: ‘Based on acoustics’, ‘Instrument as Architecture’ and ‘Layered Relationships’. Martin describes the ‘y-condition’ as ’the middle position of music and architecture when translating one to anoth- er,’ finding an organic union between the two. The computer thus serves as a good tool to facil- itate these translations- particularly in the area of ‘layered relationships’. The foundation of many music: spatial design (architecture) translations using the computer is the ‘reduction of all information to a binary signal, be it a picture, a text, a space or a sound - all data is recorded as a binary sequence allowing computation as defined by programming languages and communication through networks according to transmission protocols’ (Lab- au.com 2015). The principal that ‘the byte shall be the sole building material (Levy 2003)’ acts to enable com- positional opportunities within the spatial dimension,. This also is reductionist, as not all of the properties of music can be translated adequately or completely. Medi- ating this ‘y-condition’ computationally requires the ‘practiced hand’ of the digital craftsperson (McCullough 1998). MIDI data derived from digital instruments forms the basis for many translations from music into spatial design. Ferschin, Lehner et al. (2001) developed COFFEE TM , a language for describing objects in space that extends the functionality of Cinema 4D TM for 3D modelling, rendering and animation. ‘The main part of the translation process consists of a mapping of musical parameters, like pitch, duration, tempo, volume, instru- ment to architectural parameters as shape, size, position, material so that a piece of music in MIDI notation can be translated to a geometric structure containing shapes with materials’. Further parametric translations, framed as ‘Spatial Polyphony’ are undertaken by Christensen (2008), utilising MIDI musical data. Johan Sebastian Bach’s The Well-tempered Clavier fugue is translated