Doug is a character based on Conways Game Of Life . Doug generates a cellular pattern from an initial state and uses this to create music. Doug is modelled on a biological algorithm and uses this to navigate life. Being a "biological algorithm" requires Doug to a sleep for 8 hours a day, which makes it difficult for him to actually be used. Ella the artist spends quite a lot of the time trying to wake him up.
Biological algorithms also produce other side effects. Doug could die, requiring a Doug volume 2, or a Doug volume 3, and so on.
The gaps in Doug's processing reflects on the way we deal with the world. After an 8 hour sleep Doug carries on with what he was doing before in a very linear pattern. Although humans can get so angry about a situation, causing them to go on to the streets to riot, basic biological programming eventually kicks in requiring humans to sleep. In the morning the anger returns.
As Doug's cells evolve, they trigger behaviours that change his composition. Each cell is given an attribute which is triggered when it is activated. The cells act as individuals, adding their influence to the composition and have a variety of different roles. The cells have two different roles providing memes which the music utilises, or to provide feed back on the memes changing them slightly, to produce a composition with a constant flow of evolving textures.
When Doug stops evolving, or loops his state, Doug dies, and the music stops. One of the main set backs of biological modelling is that they are always doomed to died.
Doug can produce a confused mass of screaming voices or a choir of angels singing in the praise of syncro-no-city, the cells role is to create trends and reproduce, no matter how beautiful or ugly they may be. Doug's purpose is just to produce constant change, to add to the noise. What his cells copy is irrelevant to them, they are only interested in following the latest meme and improvising on it. Monkey see; monkey do.
Doug doesn't see the point of this, endlessly producing stuff just to produce stuff. He is tired and depressed about his situation. All he wants to do is sleep, at least he gets a break from being worked to death. The start of Doug is the end of Doug. Even death isn't an escape. A new Doug is resurrected, different from the last, but still using the same algorithms, and is doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the previous Doug. Like Escher's never ending stairs, Doug is forever working his way out of a looped maze. Doug is very aware of this, which is another problem with using biologically modelled programs. Developing the illusion of free will leads to depression,
Here's Doug doing his thing
Doug uses six FM synthesisers, and eight channels of feedback. The FM synths have a variety of sounds, which can be bought up in volume, have stereo effects applied and be passed through a variety of audio effects.
They produce patterns by having a bag of notes that are disturbed in a controlled random manner with a random percentage of spaces and a random quantiser applied. A controlled random octave, at which the notes play, and a controlled random number of sequenced steps controls how the riff meme is developed. The audio engines tempo can also be controlled by Doug. The synthesiser can be started and stopped also with controlled random conditions. These notes then can be modulated by a chord arpeggiator, using a variety of chords. Each one of the six synths can be applied a pattern which can be unique, a variant or the same as one of the others.
Examples of Doug's compositions can be found here