An Electric Generation is a software & web-based work in progress funded by Alt-W.
Music is, and always has been, a process of gradual innovation. It can be charted from the first known music to the present day. The aim of this project is to build software that has to capability to synthesize musical progression.

An Electric Generation is a machine, hosted on the web, which will conduct such a process. To produce music it relies on user participation and semi automation.

The program edits musical compositions using data that it has sourced from the Internet. It has the capability to gather input material from any area of society and culture, from the economy to science and from geology to entertainment and convert this into song.
Each song that is created is stored in an archive in which the compositions can all 'breed' - that is they exchange information with other arrangements to produce new 'songs' which are amalgamations of their parents. New generations develop and repeat this process again and again.

Direct interaction by a participant on the website influences the compositions produced, but indirectly society at large has a similar influence over the musical process. As structures in society change the data available alters and in turn is reflected in the data gathered by the program. As a result, for example, the fluctuating values on the stock exchange, or the birth rate in Mexico can have as much impact as direct interaction with the project.