This artistic PhD project is a composer-performer oriented exploration of live electronics understood as modular musicking systems. The conceptual framework draws upon an understanding of agency that views musical instruments as real or virtual objects-in-time that come into existence through the act of musicking. The systems created and presented in the thesis are explored through various scenarios presented as patches that include compositions, performance systems, and strategies for musicking. The project seeks to gain knowledge about the co-evolutionary processes found within the acts of composing and performing with such systems. At the core of the research is an exploration of the field of tension between the relative stability and flexibility in the affordances of live electronic instruments. It presents strategies for the design of live electronic systems in order to obtain a balance between these two states, and to understand how instruments are adapted in relation to the artistic processes of composing and performing. The thesis addresses the following research questions: 1. In what ways are my live electronic setups adapted within the acts of composing and performing? 2. How do my live electronic instruments manifest the field of tension between stability and flexibility? 3. What type of strategies can be used to create a predictable field of affordances of live electronic instruments? Through artistic research methods of meletē, transcription, and re-composition, the project gains a deeper understanding of when, how, and why human and non-human agents co-evolve in musicking with live electronics. It presents four core systems developed and refined within the project: Paragraph – a live coding environment, Parsimonia – a modular digital musical instrument, the EMP Triangle – a serial and modular composition tool, and the Sinew0od feedback system – used as a foundation for three transcriptions. The artistic outcomes are further studied using qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. The main contribution of this thesis is a novel understanding of live electronic musicking as co-evolutionary acts of patching. These acts entail processes of making and breaking connections between human and non-human agencies, and through patching create, transform, and manipulate compositions and performance setups, in order to achieve metastable systems. Hereby, the thesis proposes a cybernetic understanding of musicking as a process, challenging the traditional notion of fixed musical works, blurring the lines between compositions, instruments, interpretations, and performances.

>> Systems

1. Paragraph

2. Parsimonia
3. EMP Triangle
4. Sinew0od

Patches >>

1. TCP/IP: NIME
2. TCP/IP: Sestina
3. TCP/IP: Reconciliation
4. Re-patching Bach
5. Triangular Progressions
6. Sinew0od for Bass Clarinet
7. Sinew0od for Halldorophone
8. Sinew0od for Buchla

Publications >>

1. Global Hyperorgan

2. Exploring Sinew0od

3. Live Coding the Global Hyperorgan

4. A New Morphology

Book >>

Technical Description

The Manta controller interface has 48 high-resolution touch-sensitive pads with two-color LEDs, 4 touch sensitive buttons with two-colour LEDs (red and amber), and two high-resolution touch sensitive sliders.

In the Parsimonia system, each hexagonal pad can be assigned one or more predefined modules of different types that generate or process sound or data. These module types include synths or samplers, SuperCollider patterns, hardware inputs, effects, MIDI note or MIDI control change, control voltage, and internal parameter control. A module can also be a whole composition, as further discussed in Patch 5: Triangular Progressions and Patch 8: Sinew0od for Buchla in the Patches section.

The surface sensors in the pads always control the most significant module parameter, i.e., amplitude or modulation amount. While the pads functionality remains open in regard to user-assigned modules, the buttons and sliders have fixed functions. The two left-most buttons switch between three different slider modes, indicated by their three color states, off, amber, and red. As such, the sliders and the buttons next to it work in pairs. Depending on the corresponding button's state, the top slider controls functions common for the whole system, i.e., processing applied to the master output. This entails a master volume control, a DJ style combined high and lowpass filter, and saturation.

The second slider sets parameters assigned to three different morph groups – a concept used by, for example, Clavia DMI in their Nord Modular synthesizers, and in Bitwig Studio's modulator system, where the parameters assigned can have individual ranges.

Layout

The top-right button selects between three pages for the 48 pads, again indicated by the three colors, which makes it possible to have up to 144 active pads if necessary. A long press on this button enters a special utility page intended for global functions and possibly presets for setups.

A long press on the bottom right button activates an action recorder that records the following performance actions on the pads. A short press stops the recording and then toggles between playing back the recorded actions (in a loop) or stopping.

Sostenuto Pedal

The instrument also includes an optional switch pedal that behaves similarly to a sostenuto pedal on a grand piano (the middle pedal) – i.e., it freezes the currently pressed pads in their current state until the pedal is released. This allows for more complex performances where, for example, several pads with effect modules could be held down with the pedal, freeing up the performer's hands to play on other pads.

System 2: Parsimonia

Parsimonia is a digital musical instrument (DMI) written in the SuperCollider programming language, centered around the Snyderphonics Manta controller. It has been developed and used within the framework of this thesis in several scenarios, further described in the Patches section.

The video above is from a live-streamed concert at Schhh Vardagsrummet in Östra Hoby, Sweden. It is an edited version of the YouTube stream, kindly provided by Schhh. Here, I'm playing Parsimonia and a Buchla modular synthesizer, using a conbination of samples, effects, and live input from the synth.

The video above was shot for a studio recording that was part the album dronecember 2022. From an initiative on the Mastodon social media platform, for this album, the idea was to produce a piece of drone music every day during December 2022, and share it using the hashtag #dronecember. Parsimonia was used to play an incoming drone patched up on my Buchla modular sysnthesizer (not visible in the video).

In Parsimonia, the setup files defines how the instrument behaves. The image above show a simple example of such a file, where different synth, sampler, and effects modules are added to pads, using the addModule method.

Tip

Tip

Technical Description

Layout

Sostenuto Pedal

System 2: Parsimonia