ICMPC-Rencon

The 7th RENCON (Contest for Performance Rendering Systems) http://www.renconmusic.org will be a special event of ICMPC10 (The 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition) http://icmpc10.psych.let.hokudai.ac.jp/ that will be held in Sapporo, Japan, from August 25 to 29, 2008.

There will be two sections in the RENCON musical contest at ICMPC10: an autonomous section, and a type-in section. An open section is planned, in order to make RENCON appealing also for performance rendering systems not focusing on piano performance.

The autonomous section aims to evaluate performances rendered by autonomous computer systems such as the rule-based and example-based approach. Contributors are required to refrain from hand-editing performances during the performance rendering process. The submitted performances will be graded by the attendees of the ICMPC10, and the composer of the test pieces, taking into account the degree of humanness, and expressiveness. The Rencon Award(s) will be presented to the system that rendered the best performance, and the Rencon technical Award will be presented to the system the technical implementation of which is the regarded as most excellent. >> Details

The type-in section aims to build common ground for evaluating performances rendered by human operation using computer systems. In this section, human contributors will render performances, using (a) commercial music application(s) or (an) original application(s). The organizer will provide an original performance interface to those interested. We hope that this trial will be a trigger to discuss the interaction design for performance interfaces, music interpretation model, and its application for music education. >> Details

The set pieces of music are two original pieces, the ideo-structure of which is that of Chopin and that of Mozart, respectively. They will be given to the contest participants on the contest day. The contest participants of the autonomous section will be required to render both of the Chopin and Mozart-like pieces and the participants of the type-in section will be required to render the Chopin-like piece. Both of the participants of the autonomous section and type-in section will be required to render the performance in limited time. The process to render the performance will be open to ICMPC participants.

Important Dates

• ICMPC-Rencon Submission Deadline: Apr. 15, 2008
• for ICMPC 10
  • Paper Submission (camera-ready) Deadline: May 15, 2008 (extended)
  • Early registration Deadline: May 15, 2008
    
  • Conference: August 25-29, 2008

The contributors of the autonomous section the type-in section are required to register for ICMPC10.

We will be offering a booth for performance rendering to those who have registered before the deadline. And we will be accepting on-site participation and offer a booth, if there is a space in the venue.