AI system creates music responding to group dance energy
Encypher: Shared Agency and Social Presence in Collaborative Music Generation for Dance Cyphers
Human-Computer InteractionSound
Summary
Dancing and making music are ways people connect, but most AI tools focus on solo performers. The authors created Encypher, a system where dancers' group movements influence AI-generated music in real time during dance circles. People felt the music reacted to the room's energy, leading to a shared sense of control and social connection. Newcomers were encouraged to interact by watching others, showing how the system designs for social interaction, not just music creation.
What this means in practice
- •For performance artists: Develop live shows where performers’ group movements dynamically shape the accompanying AI-generated music to enhance audience experience.
- •For interactive exhibit designers: Create museum installations that respond to visitors’ collective movements by generating real-time music fostering social interaction.
Authors
Zhixing Chen, Cheng-Zhi Anna Huang
Abstract
Music and dance are social practices of expression and connection, yet most HCI work in human-AI co-creation centers the solo performer. As generative music matures, we ask not only what AI can compose but what social encounters it can organize around sound. We present Encypher, a collaborative generative music system that translates collective movement qualities into text prompts conditioning real-time music generation for dance cyphers. Through five weeks of co-design with local dancers, a user study with unacquainted participants, a public museum event, and a live performance, we found that users developed shared agency, perceiving the music as a response to the room's energy. While newcomers felt uncertain, the system fostered social presence by prompting them to look to each other for cues. By treating sociality as a design concern rather than a downstream effect, we offer a framework and design implications for AI systems for collaborative, embodied expression.