Computer + Chaos = Composition?
Eduardo Reck Miranda had trouble teaching his computer programs to write decent music. So he programmed them to teach themselves, and added a dash of chaos. 

Miranda, an expert on artificial intelligence ("AI"), has been working for years to create computer programs that can compose in various specified musical styles. Although the programs worked, they lacked inventiveness.

His breakthrough in creating more expressive artificial music was to let his computing machines learn. Drawing on the ideas from what are called cellular automata (or artificial life models) and autonomous agents, Miranda's latest works were built by self-guiding composition agents that could communicate with each other and evolve with each composition they created, continually refining and increasing in complexity.  Music, or something very much like it, emerges from simple rules and interactions among these agents.

In addition, Miranda has created ChaoSynth, a second program, which synthesizes musical sounds in novel ways. The system invents a large number of unusual sounds, and Miranda claims them to be both un-natural and pleasing to the ear.

Read the original article in EE News

Link to Miranda's web site  (be sure to see his short paper on the Origins of Music)