Case study #4 Feedback Musicianship (Music)
In Generative Arts and Musical Machines, and other practical music modules like Interactive Music Systems and Studio Project, we explore feedback musicianship as a way to develop complexity literacy, systems thinking and open-ended, collaborative modes of interaction with other agencies.
What is a feedback instrument? A feedback instrument can be roughly defined as a musical instrument where recurrent circulation of signals is fundamental to its behaviour. The circulation of signals (be they acoustic waves, continuous values in a computer, discrete information or otherwise) leads to the instrument having complex, nonlinear behaviours, in response to both the external environment, and to the history of its own internal states. Jimi Hendrix’s feedback guitar is a very simple form. Alvin Lucier’s I am Sitting in a Room another. Feedback instruments develop this idea to create systemic instruments in which this positive feedback is tunable, creating musical instruments that require a new approach to interaction and technique: they may be electro-acoustic, software or hybrid, sometimes self-resonating and always self-willed!
# Complexity literacy. Building these instruments and then playing them gives us an intuitive, sensory and embodied experience of complex systems: simple parts — a mic, an amp, some strings and a wooden box — when coupled together with positive feedback give rise to non-linear and often unpredictable behaviours and dynamics. The sonic output is emergent — the whole is ‘more than the sum of the parts’.
# Letting others be and adaptive improvisation. These instruments and systems often feel like they have a ‘life of their own’: their sonic output is not completely controlled by the performer, but determined by their history and other events in the environment. Musically, this breaks down traditional models of control and mastery in instrumental performance. Experimenting with ways to interact with them musically provides an interesting experimental playground for exploring uncontrol and ways of interacting with other agencies in the wider world — be that other humans, or other life forms. Students quickly understand non-linearities experientially: a small change in one parameter (string length or gain) can have both minimal and highly significant changes in the system behaviour. This helps to make sense of – a la tipping points We also learn to adapt and improvise a dance between our own intentions and desires and the lives of other agencies.
# Coupling & interconnectedness. When the feedback loop contains a microphone, these instruments are sensitive to the wider environment – small sounds and movements in the room can affect their behaviour. Again, this provides a model for experiencing our own environmental connections.
# Resource recycling. Students learn practical electronics, which involves microchips (currently a global shortage, so a good way to think about relationship between politics, goods and resources) and analogue electronics including switches and solenoids. These can be quite expensive, so we have a week dedicated to Bricolage and Skip Diving where we disassemble domestic and workplace electronics such as printers, hard-drives and even car parts and learn how to salvage and reuse components. This gives practical experience of resource waste and recycling, and in learning new skills and getting something for free, students realise that some things that are good for the environment are also good for them – mutualism!.
# Systems mapping. In designing and analysing these instruments, students get a feel for systems mapping, which can be applied in wider contexts.
