Harmonic Materials: Composing with found objects and a camera-based synthesiser
Butt, Jasmine; Renney, Nathan; Gaster, Benedict R; Mitchell, Tom
Authors
Jasmine Butt
Nathan Renney Nathan.Renney@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
Benedict Gaster Benedict.Gaster@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Physical Computing
Tom Mitchell Tom.Mitchell@uwe.ac.uk
Professor in Audio and Music Interaction
Abstract
Emerging discourse concerning material drift and decentring the human in Music Technology research is often centred around designing new musical instruments, but the process of composing materials is made explicit, and where, at times, the composer influences rather than controls sonic output. Offering a fine-grained, reflection-in-action account of the process of composing a piece for performance, comprising of field notes, video documentation and a graphic score, we explore the compositional process through a longstanding 4Es theory of cognition, which proposes that cognition is Embodied, Embedded, Extended and Enactive.
We found that inserting physical materials into the feedback loop between the composer and the instrument encourages playfulness and indeterminacy in the compositional process, where shifting constraints choreograph unforeseen interactions. These interactions interlock in different ways, shaping a composition that emerges through the instrument’s self-disclosure, as entanglements between player, instrument, environment and materials gradually reveal themselves.
