For the course of centuries, the work of luthiers became essential for each musician due the high amount of quality and precision that each mechanism and labour involved. It can’t be accomplished by only one person in one single space. Nowadays, in the global scenario this relationship has been quantized on a world wide scale: we are all dependent on so many products from companies in China, Brazil, India, for a variety of small devices such as parts of smartphones or rosins. It is difficult to imagine a future where each community of people could be completely independent from each other without supplies and technologies of their neighbors. And why should someone imagine such a thing?
With the 3D printing revolution in the past 20 years, the relationship between makers and testers has become narrower, allowing people to rediscover design by rapid prototyping. Testing cycles of production has become faster and more effective by a small amount of production and effort. Making became more accessible and dynamic, allowing consumers to assemble, maintain and reiterate its own products. I started to wonder what is the impact of this type of relationship into the music industry.
Since design is the process I choose for redefining artistic expression, I have been working with the concept of testing cycles, where I analyze, design, apply and test prototypes improving each iteration with the help of 3D Printing machines and open source softwares for design. Testing cycles are a method of design to iterate your prototypes by experiencing multiple times a cycle between conceptualization, planning, making, testing and analyzing.
When working with additive manufacturing for the first time, those testing cycles started to become more fruitful, meaningful and more enjoyable. As I started to own my own instrument, I started to own an identity as a musician. During this master research, this making experience became a workshop theme produced by instrument inventors initiative dedicated to artists to learn how to apply 3D printing in their projects.
Working with testing cycles has allowed me to work with simplicity while having a dynamic process. At the same time, when a person designs, she/he also is the first customer of this product. Being fully present in the experience of testing enabled any maker to obtain enough feedback about the application of this design into music performances and the creation of value into music production.
In a world where so much convenience has been given to us, it is difficult to realize how many things we take for granted and how much authenticity we lose by not searching for solutions with our own hands. I wanted to find out what happens with my music practice if I reflect about where those sounds come from, what they mean, how they were made and how they were manipulated and presented.