Bill Manaris

Professor of Computer Science, Director of Computing in the Arts program

Education

PhD Computer Science, University of Louisiana, Center for Advanced Computer Studies

Dissertation Title: A Formal Framework for the Development of Natural Language Interfaces to Operating Systems.

MS Computer Science, University of Louisiana, Center for Advanced Computer Studies

BS Computer Science (minor in Humanities, with emphasis on Music and Linguistics), University of New Orleans

Research Interest

Areas of interest include computer music and art, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. Research emphasis is on algorithmic arts, interaction design, modeling of aesthetics and creativity, sound spatialization, and telematics. Specific projects involve design of systems for computer-aided analysis, composition, and performance in music and art. Also research in music information retrieval and computational musicology (with a deep interest in Zipf’s law, the golden ratio, and their application in music and art). Earlier work in natural language processing and speech recognition.  Research funded by the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Google, IBM, and others.

Courses Taught

CITA 140 - Graphic Design and Digital Media

CITA 180 - Computers, Music, and Art

CSCI 280 - Game Programming

CSCI 300 - Seminar on Computing and Society

CSCI 380 - User Interface Development

CITA 395 - Computing in the Arts Practicum

CSCI 470 - Principles of Artificial Intelligence

CSIS 672 - Human Computer Interaction

CSIS 691/CSCI 399/CSCI 299 - Computer Music and Interaction

Selected Publications

B. Manaris and A.R. Brown, Making Music with Computers: Creative Programming in Python, Chapman & Hall/CRC Textbooks in Computing, pp. 502, May 2014.

B. Manaris, and A. Forgette, Meta-Xenakis: Developing Style-Agnostic, Stochastic Algorithmic Music, Proceedings of the 49th International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2023), Shenzhen, China, Oct. 2023.

A. Forgette, B. Manaris, M. Gillikin, and S. Ramdsen, Speakers, More Speakers!!! – Developing Interactive, Distributed, Smartphone-Based, Immersive Experiences for Music and Art, Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA 2022), Barcelona, Spain, Jun. 2022.

C. Benson, B. Manaris, S. Stoudenmier, and T. Ward, SoundMorpheus: A Myoelectric-Sensor Based Interface for Sound Spatialization and Shaping, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2016), Brisbane, Australia, Jul. 2016.

B. Manaris, B. Stevens, and A.R. Brown, JythonMusic: An Environment for Teaching Algorithmic Music Composition, Dynamic Coding, and Musical Performativity, Journal of Music, Technology & Education 9(1), pp. 55-78, May 2016.

B. Manaris, D. Hughes, Y. Vassilandonakis, Monterey Mirror: an experiment in interactive music performance combining evolutionary computation and Zipf’s law, Evolutionary Intelligence 8(1), Springer-Verlag, pp 23-35, Mar. 2015.

D. Johnson, B. Manaris, Y. Vassilandonakis, and S. Stoudenmier, Kuatro: A Motion-Based Framework for Interactive Music Installations, Proceedings of the 40th International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2014), Athens, Greece, Sep. 2014.

B. Manaris, P. Roos, D. Krehbiel, T. Zalonis, and J.R. Armstrong, Zipf’s Law, Power Laws and Music Aesthetics, in T. Li, M. Ogihara, G. Tzanetakis (eds.), Music Data Mining, pp. 169-216, CRC Press – Taylor & Francis, Jul. 2011.

B. Manaris, P. Roos, P. Machado, D. Krehbiel, L. Pellicoro, and J. Romero, A Corpus-Based Hybrid Approach to Music Analysis and Composition, Proceedings of 22nd Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07), Vancouver, BC, pp. 839-845, Jul. 2007.

B. Manaris, J. Romero, P. Machado, D. Krehbiel, T. Hirzel, W. Pharr, and R.B. Davis, Zipf’s Law, Music Classification and Aesthetics, Computer Music Journal 29(1), MIT Press, pp. 55-69, Spring 2005.