Beatrix: The Amorphous Drum Ensemble

We present a model of an African drum ensemble. We develop a model of polyrhythms, their creation, and their goodness. We assume that drummers are distributed and autonomous and must coordinate their rhythms and timing amongst themselves. We introduce a new amorphous clustering algorithm and show that distributed temporal synchronization is possible under certain restrictions. We develop a suite of visualizations that provide key insights into the structure of polyrhythms. Finally, we present interactive mechanisms that allow users to participate in and investigate polyrhythm evolution.