Studies on Autonomy, Sep 13th 2021.

Studies On Autonomy is the name of a text file that I created on December 4th 2020, and that, at the time of writing - September 2021 -, I still keep updating and modifying. It collects a number of recursive sound experiments, inspired by (eco)systemic approaches in sound composition, and formulated in computer code. In particular, they engage with the emergent aesthetics of positive and negative feedback relationships in DSP networks, and with the speculative potential of this peculiar form of composition. Indeed, they are composed through a kind of algorithmic experimentation that does not center around a ‘result’, or a clearly defined point of arrival. They rather develop through iterative cycles of speculation, (re)formulation, implementation and careful listening, in which aesthetic problems and artistic concerns are constantly shifting, evolving and emerging. As such, Studies on Autonomy can never be completed. In this page you hear instances of this experimentation: small processes that, for their aesthetic qualities, I decided to crystallize in the text file and to record on disk.

Each study consists of a network of DSP relationships that defines a closed dynamical system. In bio-cybernetics terms, the system is sonically "self-sustaining", meaning that the network is able to autonomously maintain its oscillations for an indefinite period of time. This is achieved through a set of positive and negative feedback mechanisms that transform, amplify or suppress sounds to maintain a condition of stability. These mechanisms are made perceivable in the sound forms that emerge out of the overall process. Every study is composed with the aim of magnifying specific aesthetic qualities but, due to the hardly predictable emergent behavior of each network, a prescriptive formulation in that sense is impossible. Studies on Autonomy is thus an experiment at the intersection of compositional intentionalities and autonomies of sound processes.

Here is a link to the excerpt for the artikulationen web page.