Music, mathematics and computing wrestle with the relationship between the formal and the informal in different ways. Every performing musician can relate to Gustav Mahler’s observation that “what is most important is not in the notes”. Every educated mathematician appreciates the limitations of formal logical systems. Computing, as the least mature of these disciplines, strives to stand solidly upon the foundation of formal mathematics yet is manifest in practice across a vast canvas of human activity that defies formalisation. Thinking about computing technology in a way that goes beyond its recognised powers to process formalisms motivates an alternative conception of computing based on using the computer to create “construals” rather than programs. This will be illustrated with examples in mathematics and in music, including a personal construal of Schubert's famous setting of Goethe's poem, Erlkoenig, that highlights the originality of his musical imagination.

For more information, see www.lkl.ac.uk/maths-art .

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