Sculpting Sound: A Systematic Approach to Designing, Building and Composing Using Sound Installations

The use of prepared musical instruments, or ‘impossible objects’ as I refer to them conceptually, to compose music is not a new phenomenon. However, the existing studies have a limited scope from a single perspective: experimental practices, organology, sound art, instrument building or composition. The proposed research seeks (1) to bridge the gap between these perspectives by articulating a practical and theoretical framework to design, build and compose music using modified instruments; (2) to build upon my past experiences and on existing creative research practices and methods to expand the concept of ‘impossible objects’ by transitioning towards a sculptural approach to music composition, where these objects are recontextualized as sound sculptures within a complex structure as sound installations; and (3) the composition of new chamber works for the JACK Quartet and Vertixe Sonora.

In order to produce modified musical instruments and to transition towards an expanded approach where these objects are reimagined as constituent parts within sound installations, in which the physical performance space is also transformed, it is essential to understand their mechanics, therefore collaborating with ensembles, luthiers and instrument makers in the form of experimentation and testing sessions is a fundamental part of the process. In these sessions, the effectiveness, practicality, portability and invasiveness of the objects and structures will be assessed. A comprehensive catalogue of research and audio-visual materials will be compiled and the findings will be outline in three journal articles. In the first one I will propose a practical and theoretical framework to articulate the relationship between sound, music, noise and experimental practices. The second one will be devoted to present the findings and implementation of the research and the third will focus on the collaborative aspects of this kind of project.

Finally, as an artist-researcher, my compositional ideas are in constant dialogue with past and future works, hence I organize my pieces as musical cycles. To date BURSZTYN, Spatio-Temporal Cartographies and Archipelago Sierpinski. This project is at the centre of my creative practice as research, and each subsequent development of the processes and approaches will be unequivocally linked to the development of these cycles. I plan to compose two chamber works. The tentative titles of these works are Cartography of Ephemeral Spaces and Aira/Sonora. These works will be performed by the JACK Quartet and Vertixe Sonora as part of their respective concert seasons.