ABSTRACT
In 1714, the violinist and music teacher Guiseppe Tartini discovered that two tones played simultaneously could give rise to a third tone, not present in the acoustic signals but clearly audible to the hearer. Tartini’s ‘terzo suono’ was later identified by von Helmholtz as a product of auditory distortion, caused by non-linear processes occurring inside the cochlea. Today these tones can best be understood as otoacoustic emissions, the ‘distortion’ being produced by the cochlear amplifier. These tones have a rich and controversial history - as objects of scientific fascination, but also as a sonic material, especially in the music of improvisers and drone artists. But the use of distortion tones in technological music has largely been rudimentary and dependent upon high amplitudes to produce its effects. What has been lacking is a systematic approach to auditory distortion, which treats the distortion product as a sound synthesis material that is rendered by the listener’s ears. In this talk I will present a series of methods devised in collaboration with Gary Kendall and Rodrigo Cadiz, before going on to describe their use in some of my own works. These works challenge the notion we see so often repeated in the literature on sonic art and sound experience: of the ear as submissive sense organ, ever open and vulnerable, its mechanical function (hearing) continuing long after its critical function (listening) has been disengaged. In Correlation Number One (2010) and Vertizontal Hearing (Up & Down, I then II) (2012), the ear becomes an instrument. Forced into action, it becomes an active participant in the work’s realization.
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER HAWORTH
Christopher is the ICASP postdoctoral at McGill working in the Department of Philosophy on instrumentality and authenticity in technologically mediated improvisation practices. Prior to this, he completed a Ph.D. in composition at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, QUB, where he focused on subjectivity and listener-agency in computer music composition. His works are designed in such a way as to ‘dramatize’ the listening act, revealing voluntary and involuntary mechanisms of audition and encouraging ‘perceptual creativity’. He has a B.A in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, and an Mmus in composition from Goldsmiths College, London.