The Kerf of Sound

This dissertation explores "kerf"—the width of material removed by a saw blade—as a conceptual framework linking material-driven experiences in instrument making to philosophical questions of absence and presence. The text extends kerf beyond a physical consequence of woodcraft towards a suggestive, destructive parameter that connects dual creative research: "composing instruments" made from wood and wire, and composing "Tinnitus Music" in response to hearing impairment. Chapter 1 examines kerf through the arbrasson, a rubbed, friction idiophone created with chainsaw cuts in wood. This instrument draws inspiration from the livika of New Ireland—a carved log with three "tongues" that produces piercing sounds when rubbed with moistened palms during Malagan funeral ceremonies. The chapter compares these instruments, asking how much of the livika lives on in the arbrasson. The text also features a first-hand account of building arbrassons and making music with them. Chapter 2 chronicles the author’s decade-long practice (2014-2024) of composing instruments through various daxophone designs: The Starship Daxophone, The Student Model, Apprentice Model, Seaplane Model, Doubleneck Tripod, and Minimal Daxophone. These instruments function as para-compositions, shaping specific sonic aesthetics before they're even played. Technical descriptions are balanced with narrative accounts of woodworking processes and the relationship to wood as a material. Chapter 3 analyzes tinnitus itself as a form of kerf—an absence that manifests as presence and a damage that gives way to material in the form of pitches and responses to sound. The author documents how musical responses to this condition have evolved through two projects: Tinnitus Journal and Masking Songs, one finished and one unfinished composition that each encounter tinnitus differently. The dissertation concludes with a multimodal experiment—a nearly two-hour film documenting an extended conversation between synth designer Peter Blasser and the author.