Dynamic Concept Maps for Music

Concepts maps are used to represent domain knowledge, mostly by attaching word labels to a static graph. For concepts and relations which unfold in time, this representation is not well suited because temporal relations have to be mapped to static ones. This can be useful to understand and memorize structures, but it detaches the representation in the map from its temporal nature. One approach of introducing dynamics into concept maps is the integration of multimedia elements. These elements can display dynamic content like audio and video, but do not affect the map's structure. The temporal aspect of a domain can be represented in a concept map by changing the appearance of nodes or edges over time. A second approach is to change the perspective on the map, e.g. showing a different part of the map, and a third one is to change the structure of the map dynamically. The first and the third approach have been realized by the authors in a prototypical software for mapping musical structures. Music provides an excellent test bed for dynamic concept maps, since is has complex inherent temporal structures (e.g. harmony, rhythm, form). Our software supports dynamic mapping by using dynamic nodes displays, e.g. with a cursor highlighting the song position, and by allowing to change the structure according to music playback, e.g. showing only nodes that are currently played back, or building up a map during playback.