Supporting data for: Exploring Definitions of Quality and Diversity in Sonic Measurement Spaces

Data accompanying the article Exploring Definitions of Quality and Diversity in Sonic Measurement Spaces The Innovation Engine algorithm is used to evolve sounds, where Quality Diversity search is guided by Behaviour Definitions by unsupervised models and full-reference and no-reference quality evaluation approaches.
Sonic discoveries have shaped and transformed creative processes in sound art and music production. Compositions prompted by new timbres influence and improve our lives. Modern technology offers a vast space of sonic possibilities to explore. Background and expertise influence the explorers ability to navigate that space of possibilities. Efforts have been made to develop automated systems that can systematically generate and explore these sonic possibilities. One route of such efforts has involved the search for diversity and quality with evolutionary algorithms, automating the evaluation of those metrics with supervised models. We continue on that path of investigation by further exploring possible definitions of quality and diversity in sonic measurement spaces by applying and dynamically redefining unsupervised models to autonomously illuminate sonic search spaces. In particular we investigate the applicability of unsupervised dimensionality reduction models for defining dynamically expanding, structured containers for a quality diversity search algorithm to operate within. Furthermore we evaluate different approaches for defining sonic characteristics with different feature extraction approaches. Results demonstrate considerable ability in autonomously discovering a diversity of sounds, as well as limitations of simulating evolution within the confines of a single, structured, albeit dynamically redefined, search landscape. Sound objects discovered in traversals through such autonomously illuminated sonic spaces can serve as resources in shaping our lives and steering them through diverse creative paths, along which stepping stones towards interesting innovations can be collected and used as input to human culture.