Event overview
Bridging between micro and macro-level cultural dynamics of music: Advanced online experiments and big data. Spring 2024 Whitehead Lecture by Manuel Anglada Tort
Abstract:
Music, like language, is a complex cultural system that arises from the interplay of human biology, cognition, and cultural transmission. However, explaining how these processes contribute to the emergence of musical systems remains a key challenge. In this talk, I will present research that addresses this gap by leveraging recent advances in computational and experimental techniques. First, I will present evidence from large-scale music evolution studies, where hundreds of participants learn and interact using artificially constructed musical systems. By quantifying the evolution of these systems, we can establish causal connections between individual cognition and population-level emergent structure. Second, I will present an extension of this paradigm to study music evolution within social networks, allowing us to explore how micro-level interactions give rise to collective dynamics, such as musical diversity and creativity. Finally, I will present a big data project showing how global music discovery data from Shazam can provide insights into large-scale cultural dynamics, including changes in societies and worldviews. I will end by discussing the potential of these methods to increase the efficiency, scalability, and diversity of research in cultural evolution and cognitive science.
Biography:
I am a cognitive scientist interested in understanding how human cognition shapes complex cultural systems, such as music and art. I am a Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a visiting researcher in the Computational Auditory Perception Group at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Mar 2024 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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