At a Glance

Oscilla is a framework for creating, performing, and sharing animated, cue‑driven graphic scores in the web browser.

It sits between notation, performance, and live electronic control, allowing composers to design scores that move, react, and synchronize across performers’ devices — while remaining readable, editable, and shareable.

If you can draw it in SVG, Oscilla can turn it into a time‑based, interactive score.

What Problems Does Oscilla Solve?

Many contemporary scores:

• rely on static PDFs that cannot express temporal or interactive processes
• require custom software or fragile patches to realise
• separate notation, rehearsal coordination, and electronic control into different tools

Oscilla addresses this by providing:

• notation‑centric workflow (the score is the interface)
• browser‑based performance (no installation for performers)
• explicit time, cue, and process control embedded directly in the score

What Can You Actually Do With It?

1. Create Animated Graphic Scores

• Draw notation in Inkscape (or any SVG editor)
• Attach behaviours to graphical elements using simple, readable IDs
• Animate rotation, scaling, traversal, and visibility over time

The score becomes dynamic, without becoming opaque or procedural.

2. Coordinate Ensemble Performance

• Synchronise scores across multiple devices via a local server
• Use shared playheads, rehearsal marks, and cues
• Support fixed form, open form, or hybrid structures

Each performer sees the same temporal structure, while still interpreting locally.

3. Work With Composed Improvisation

Oscilla is particularly suited to:

• controlled improvisation
• modular or sectional forms
• scores that evolve differently on each run

Cues can:

• branch
• repeat
• pause
• trigger other events

This allows the score to guide behaviour rather than prescribe outcomes.

4. Control Electronics (Without Becoming a DAW)

Oscilla allows graphical elements in the score to function directly as control structures for electronics.

In practice this means:

• paths, shapes, and points drawn in Inkscape can be interpreted as trajectories, timelines, or control curves
• these structures can drive time, density, position, or other parameters
• the same graphical material serves both as notation and control logic

This creates a direct visual link between what performers see and how electronics behave.

Oscilla’s built-in audio system is intentionally simple:

• basic sample playback
• simple synthesis
• time-aligned audio cues placed directly in the score

This makes it possible to realise works for instruments and fixed media (“tape”) entirely in the browser, without external software or complex setup.

Where more advanced processing is required, Oscilla can:

• send OSC messages to SuperCollider, Pure Data, Max, lighting systems, or custom software
• act as a notational and organisational layer for complex electronic setups

Oscilla is not a replacement for audio environments — it is the score that coordinates them.

5. Support Rehearsal and Collaboration

• Performers can add private or shared annotations
• Scores can be shared via URL
• No special software is required beyond a modern browser

This lowers barriers in rehearsal contexts and supports distributed ensembles.

Where Does Oscilla Sit in the Bigger Picture?

Oscilla belongs to a lineage of systems exploring the space between:

• graphic notation
• live electronics
• networked performance

What distinguishes Oscilla is that:

• the score itself is the primary interface
• everything runs using open web technologies
• composers work visually, not programmatically

Rather than inventing a new notation language, Oscilla extends existing graphic practices into time, motion, and interaction.

Who Is Oscilla For?

Oscilla is designed for:

• composers working with graphic or hybrid notation
• performers comfortable with non‑traditional scores
• ensembles using electronics, live processing, or networked coordination
• researchers and educators exploring new score–performance relationships

It is not aimed at replacing traditional notation tools, but at augmenting what scores can do.

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