Sound art, no input mixing, and the spencer-brown modulator

This presentation pays homage to sound artists in their quest to make the inaudible audible using piezoceramic discs, inductive coil pickups, microphones, speakers, and wires, to name a few. The burgeoning practice of contemporary sound art identifies itself in feedback – the sound that creates itself. Such an approach is exemplified through practices like no input mixing, where signals from a mixer are fed back into the mixer itself, generating complex musical textures. This presentation contextualizes such sound art practices by introducing the theory of “modulators” or “reductors,” re-enteringNOR circuits, which manipulate oscillating inputs to create distinctive and predictable rhythmic patterns and frequencies. By tracing the origins of the square wave to the humble inverter and referencing a variety of handmade electronic music practices, this presentation challenges traditional definitions of musical acoustics and sound art, reevaluating what constitutes musical expression.