Potential Thesis ideas

Brief

My thesis will be an investigation into designing creative tools and experiences for young people in a way that fosters community and aims to be sustainable and just. I will experiment with various design practices influenced by nomadic practices, speculative design, and generative justice.

Although the exact form of any resulting artifacts will be determined by the design process, I plan to explore the interaction language of video games as a way of making multimedia performances. I plan to explore software design methods that attempt to ensure that the resulting tools I will research cultures of perma-computing and software preservation to search for methods of writing software that do not feed cycles of planned or perceived obsolescence. I plan to work with the Neutral Zone both to get help from teens in designing meaningful experiences but also to benefit the Neutral Zone community.

what design philosophy will I employ

• Design Philosophies

Observations

When I think about the topics that have held my interest over the last few years there are definitely themes. Maybe writing those down will help with a direction.

themes in my interests

• sustainability and technology (what does ecologically sound IT look like?)

• prefiguration/prefigurative projects (creating an operating model of something better within current dominant economic/political/social systems)

• community/democracy/equity

• planned obsolescence

• perceived obsolescence

  parallel concerns

• software preservation (ex. the domesday project, UXN, virtual machine design)

• perma-computing

• repair/right to repair

• scavenged constructions

  • Afrorack aka Brian Bamanya
  • Adnan Marquez-Borbon with practice built on second-hand markets in Mexico/cultural practice of Hechizo, Brazillian practice of Giambarra

• community organizations that use creative technology for mutual care

  • The Neutral Zone
  • Afrorack [Aaron Guice]

• instrument preservation

• Alex McLean's work on algorithmic pattern (alternate history of computing)

• Ron Eglash's idea of generative justice

• FOSS/Open hardware

• Federations/Cooperatives (ZCOB, Mondragón, Moog)

inspirations

• Eglash's generative justice projects in Detroit
• hundred rabbits UXN and related software
• mutable instruments plaits, braids, clouds, ect...
• Algorave
• Joo Won Park's practice
• Afrorack
• monome
• sunvox
• airwindows

questions

• what does a sustainable/ecologically sound music technology look like?
• can it be constructed inside dominant economic, social, political, and cultural paradigms? If not, what frameworks could support its growth? How could these alternative systems survive inside the dominant one?
• using Eglash's framework: how can music technology circulate (as opposed to extract) multiple kinds of value (cultural, economic, ecological)? To what extent can is extricate itself from extractive enterprises (IC manufacture, mining, inhumane labor conditions, coercion)
• Eglash supposes that enterprises can gradually extricate themselves from extractive systems by networking with other non-extractive systems, what are examples of such networks?

notes on what a project exploring multiple of these directions looks like

1. it would be simple and not try to do too many things (a simple system that works)
2. it would take some incremental step towards multiple of the above directions (I realize there is tension with point 1 here)
3. it would prefigure a less extractive model

solution bucket (full of 1/2 baked project ideas)

synthetic gamelon inspired synthesizers

I love that the gamelon is not an instrument but an ensemble to which instruments belong. The reyong player does not walk to the next town and take their instrument to play with another band. Rather, the reyong is tuned so that it matches with the ensemble and the ensemble belongs to the village center. What would this look like with electronic instruments? On the face of it, this formulation of community ownership of the technology seems better suited toward sustainable and non-extractive systems. Would there be a way to support this kind of community musicing with synthesizers? This question makes me think of Peter Blasser's wild and wonderful instruments. Specifically the tocante are tuned based on standard component ranges of resistors and capacitors, with each tocante tuned differently. What if one used a similar idea of hyper local tuning scheme to create a group of synthetic instruments that each had a separate role in the music? If not tuning, perhaps some other characteristic that binds the instruments locally. Perhaps these instruments could be modeled off of existing gamelon and gamelon composers could be commissioned to write pieces for the new instruments (collab with Gavin).

A simple virtual machine for dsp/audio-visual art

Taking a cue from 100r and the software preservation studies they are interested in create a small virtual machine that could be implemented in 2-3 weeks by one developer and the specifications for which could be written in a few pages printed out or at least a small book.

Try to wring as much interesting synthesis and pattern manipulation as possible out of limited specs. Target a machine that is 10 years old.

Have slightly higher specs than UXN so that more DSP can be done. (see specs for abelton live 2)

a custom livecoding language/interface

I very much want to learn how to make my own livecoding language. Why? There are so many good ones available. Making music algorithmically always feels very personal for me. I often enjoy other languages but feel like I quickly begin customizing or pushing their boundaries. This may be a personality trait but I think it is also an indicator that there is something I want to find a more fluid expression for. A list of things I commonly want to explore: - feedback and non-linearity - gesture based livecoding with a pen - gesture based livecoding with a motion sensor - speech based livecoding - the (permeable) boundary between pattern, composition, and synthesis - dance music - "growth based" exploration vs. "production based" exploration - algorithmic pattern

Many languages afford one or more of these areas to be freely explored but I have not found any fully satisfying.

a highly-portable daw based on video game interaction design (inspired by Joo Won Park)

• uses old/scavenged video-game controllers as interface elements
• uses software preservation techniques to ensure longevity is possible and performance is considered
• allows for an embodied relationship to algorithmic sound... Executing combos
• is itself a strange kind of videogame
• can be played cooperatively
• can be constructed cheaply

locally sourced scavenged synthesizer design

• uses locally sourced 2nd hand parts
• explores analog and digital synthesizer design

an instrument which you build yourself but must not keep