Summary
The synthesizer was invented in the 1960s and yet its paradigmatic place in our society and culture remains under-appreciated. This project involves creating drawing, sculpture and installation work that gives the viewer/listener an embodied understanding of the functioning of synthesizer modules. Deleuze and Guattari recognised the philosophical and analogical significance of synthesizers in A Thousand Plateaus. Their writing suggests that the synthesizer is paradigmatic in art, science and philosophy: “philosophy is no longer synthetic judgment; it is like a thought synthesizer functioning to make thought travel, make it mobile, make it a force of the Cosmos”. This project seeks to make our understanding of the synthesizer travel to “make it a force in the Cosmos”.
Background
I have been working with drawing machines since 2002. My early mechanical approaches evolved into more refined motorised machines in 2013-14. My motivation for this shift was to create a flexible platform that would allow me to explore new interfaces and relationships between drawing and the body. I built mechanical controllers around simple electrical components, using springs and friction discs to bring a new tactile experience to the process of drawing. More recently I have been exploring a friction-less approach to interfacing with the machine by using sound. With this approach I’ve made drawings with the sounds of my voice and the sounds of the ocean, with my body interfacing with the machine and with the acoustical energy of the ocean waves.
Synthesis
Drawing Synthesis is a way of expanding on this work by bringing a new conceptual and philosophical model to thinking about how discrete modules or processes can come together to create a drawing. The overarching title Synthesis is about expanding these understandings further to include sculptural objects and installation.
I recently came across the Wikipedia entry on sound absorption that mentions the profound analogies that exist between the acoustical, electrical, and mechanical realms. These three realms all have important resistive and reactive elements. Resistive elements include sound absorbing materials, resistors in electrical circuits, and friction in mechanical systems. Reactive elements include springs and pendulums (mechanical), inductors and capacitors (electrical), reflective surfaces and parabolic forms (acoustic). These connections between the mechanical, electrical and acoustic have made me think about my work in a whole new light and consider how we can create installations that make explicit the depth of these connections.
The Details
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors which emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
“Emergence” Wikipedia
The first synthesizers were modular. They get their name from the sound synthesis created by patching discrete modules together. The connections between modules produces an emergent complexity, variety and richness of sounds that is far greater than what sound producing modules can do alone. In this way synthesizers can be thought of as a model system for thinking about emergence. They can also be the source of profound analogical and metaphorical understandings of biological, chemical, physical, and cultural processes.
Synthesizers remain under-appreciated because they operate at a scale and level of complexity that is difficult for the casual observer to appreciate. A tiny adjustment can produce dramatic shifts in sound, and the flow of electricity through circuits is invisible even to the person operating the synth. In this project I enlarge these small adjustments, make visible the flow of electricity in sound synthesis, and translate small modular components into relatively large sculptural objects. Sounds, mechanical, and object-based modules are “patched” together in installations that allow the viewer/listener to inhabit the processes of synthesis and to better appreciate the rich analogues and analogies that connect the synthesizer to other areas of thought and practice.
The Control Voltages (CVs) that shape the sounds of a synthesizer are made visible by using them to control a large format drawing machine (drawing synthesis). Elements of the synth including the filter and the LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) are made as sculptural objects that can be ‘played’ by the viewer/listener by moving in the space of the installation (object and spatial synthesis).
Drawing Synthesis starts with the LFO and the envelope. These modules can shape sound and be plugged into the drawing machine at the same time. In this way the role of the LFO and envelope in sound synthesis becomes visible as CVs intended for sound are routed to control mechanical motion.
Using synth module CVs to produce drawings is a form of analogue programing, one that stands in contrast to code-based approaches that have been around since the 1960s. The approach here can be thought of as an inversion of Daphne Oram’s pioneering work with the Oramics Machine in the 1960s in which she used hand-drawn waveforms and optical scanning to create electronic music.
Object synthesis involves the creation of parabola inspired sculptural works including arches, dishes, stools and benches. A parabola reflects and amplifies energy (sound, light, radio-frequencies) to a focal point. Not all frequencies are amplified equally, the differences in frequency response make the parabola a kind of filter, analogous to the modules in synthesizers. The LFO produces oscillations at frequencies below the audible range, a cycle can take anywhere from minutes to fractions of a second to complete. The beating heart is a kind of LFO, as is the rhythm created by a rocking chair. By building a parabolic arch into the base of stools and benches I am able to create an LFO that is driven by the rocking motion of the listener/viewer. These rocking LFOs can then be precisely placed so that their motion takes the listener/viewer through the focal point of parabolic forms allowing them to hear how the forms act as filters. In synth terms this is the equivalent of patching the LFO to the filter and gives the listener an embodied experience and understanding of both the LFO and filter modules, and the parabola as a form with a special relationship to sound. The parabolic arches and dishes have a glossy finish that allows the viewer/listener to appreciate both the sound and light energy that these objects reflect.
These sculptural works and rocking furniture will be made with parts to assemble cut from plywood sheets using a CNC router. This use of highly repeatable mechanical automation to create the sculptural works stands in contrast to mechanical variations that come through in Drawing Synthesis.
I will explore the broader context of this work through curatorial projects that will include works by diverse artists who create drawings, sculptures and installations that can be construed as modules of a synthesizer. These works are seen alongside historical material that connects the synthesizer’s development in the 1960s to current art practice.
This text is an edited version of selected sections of my 2021 grant application to the Australia Council for the Arts. It is always an honour to have a project selected for funding by fellow artists and arts professionals.
This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
