Instruments of Articulation

Thorn, Seth Dominicus; Wei, Sha Xin

doi:10.1145/3347122.3347133

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…These architectures resemble “a patchwork of subnetworks assembled by a complex process of tinkering, rather than a system that results from some clean, unified design” (Varela et al, 2017 ). The ongoing processes of refinement we pursue in developing these instruments abductively, through participation and without a priori models, actualizes a key affordance of real-time media processing with interpreted software programming environments, namely that one must no longer contend with a delay between composition and sonic actualization (Thorn and Sha, 2019 ; Thorn, 2021a ). Rather, continuous reshaping of a body of code through trial-and-error tinkering refines and symmetrizes the sensorimotor dynamics of embodied action and perception, which are undifferentiated in the enactive approach.…”

Section: Relational Experiential Inquiry In Movement Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collectively playable wearable music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry

Thorn

Willcox

2022

Wearable Technol.

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We present two practice-situated participatory investigations using networked wearable sensors to develop movement-responsive collectively playable musical instruments: a series of four collocated workshops for expert dancers and a distance learning course in which students use wearable technology to enhance embodied learning and feelings of connectedness telematically. We reflect on our exploration of techniques for structuring ensemble improvisations augmented with bespoke digital musical instruments using aggregate statistical measures, such as variance of participants’ physical orientation as an index of group intention. Participatory design exchanges top-down design methodologies with bottom-up approaches consulting actors’ interests. We follow this approach by evolving our instruments through abductive experiments and trial-and-error tinkering, without strong theories, methods, or models, using elementary signal processing techniques that are meaningfully understood and modified by participants. Our experiences suggest useful scaffolding techniques for educational transdisciplinary research-creation communities seeking to explore relational ensemble dynamics in telematic and/or physically collocated settings using accessible wearable technologies. Through creative inquiry and participation, technical objects can become bearers of sense and meaning rather than instating mystifying or alienating relations for the participants.

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Section: Relational Experiential Inquiry In Movement Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collectively playable wearable music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry

Thorn

Willcox

2022

Wearable Technol.

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“…A distinctive affordance of real-time signal processing is the ability to symmetrise action and perception through improvisation, insofar as DMIs can be continuously adapted and experimentally modulated by their designers, who construct gesture and audio descriptors on the fly (Thorn and Sha 2019). The continuity of the historical development of the acoustic violin and its contemporary uptake in digital–physical systems is evidenced by a progressively and immanently enacted ‘cognitive architecture’ (Varela, Thompson and Rosch 2016: 106) displayed in these instruments: to compose a DMI through model-free tinkering is isomorphic with the enactive approach to cognition as ‘perceptually guided action’ (Varela 1999: 12).…”

Section: Model-free Digital Musical Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flows of Inhomogeneous Matter: Improvising an augmented violin

Thorn

2021

Org. Sound

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This article reflects on how personal digital musical instruments evolve and presents an augmented violin developed and performed by the author in improvised performance as an example. Informed by the materialism of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, an image of ‘flows of inhomogeneous matter’ provokes reflection on a mode of production common to artisanal craftmanship and digital lutherie alike, namely the pre-reflective skilfulness negotiating the singularities of inhomogeneous matter with the demands of the production – a process which itself may be thought of as im-pro-visation (‘un-fore-seen’). According to Gilbert Simondon, all technical objects develop in this way: functional interdependency emerges when abstractly ideated elements begin to enter into unanticipated synergistic relationships, suggesting a material logic dependent on unforeseen potentialities. The historical development of the acoustic violin exemplifies such an evolution, with, like all technical objects, additional latent potential. Digital artists can work like artisanal craftsmen in tinkering with technical elements, teasing out their synergies through abductive, trial-and-error experimentation. In the context of developing digital musical instruments, model-free design of real-time digital signal processing symmetrising action and perception yields highly refined results. Like musical improvisation – constrained by time – improvised development of these instruments turns the material obstacles into their very means of realisation.

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