The bodyless sound and the re-embodied sound: an expansion of the sonic body of the instrument

Abstract

The development of recording technologies, audio manipulation techniques, and sound synthesis opened new sonic horizons. At the same time, realising or reproducing these new sounds creates issues of disembodiment and/or a total lack of physical-gesture-to-audio relationship. Understanding the impact these issues have on our perception and comprehension of music becomes central in the light of new creative practices, in which developing hardware and software has become part of the creative process. These creative practices force us to re-think the role of performance and the medium (musical instruments) in the essence of the musical work. Building upon previous research, a set of possible configurations for hyperinstrument design is presented in this article with the aim to introduce novel ways of thinking about the relationship of the physical body of the instrument (resonant body), the sonic body (the acoustic phenomena unfolding in a physical space), and performance.