Douglas's original proposal:
The MEAP Reordering Challenge!!!
We've looked at Thomas Dimuzio's backwards Stairway to Heaven pieces:
http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/Yawriats_Ot_Nevaeh.mp3
http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/Nevaeh_Ot_Yawriats.mp3
Carter Scholz took this source file:
http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/MEAP_reorder_challenge/ChrisMann_Originalsoundfile.mp3
and sorted the original in two dimensions: pitched v. noisy and high to low. He then reassembled the fragments into a new piece:
http://music.columbia.edu/~douglas/MEAP_reorder_challenge/CarterScholz_Managram.mp3
These pieces bring up some interesting questions. What are the perceptual dimensions of sound/music? What are some ways of quantifying those dimensions? Which are meta, and which are local? How much can you tweak those dimensions and still have the sound maintain its identity?
In the Hairway to Steven examples above, it's clear that the micro-backwards/macro-forwards version maintains its identity, while the micro-forwards/macro-backwards one is a totally new piece. Carter's piece, despite total micro and macro reorganisation, retains quite a bit of the flavor of the orginal.
Here's your challenge: take a piece of music/sound and algorthmically 'reorder' it in some interesting way. By 'algorithmically' I mean by a defined process, as opposed to 'intuitively'. It doesn't matter whether you do the actual reordering by hand/ear or with code.