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Composing the Context: Considerations on materially mediated electronic musicianship

A range of material objects can be transformed into sound emitters by the induction of audio-rate vibration with structure-borne sound drivers. The resulting acoustically activated physical objects offer the possibility to extend the compositional gesture towards the material environment, providing a literal re-reading of Schaeffer’s objet sonore concept. Engaging sound in physical objects ties the creative gesture to its surroundings, grounding the approach in an inherently situated dimension. This article examines the compositional strategies emerging from diffusing sound via physical objects, such as sound spatialisation, audiovisual sculpture and audiotactility in concert setting, illustrated by four case studies of recent aural artwork. On the basis of the case studies, the aesthetic implications of materially mediated aural art are discussed, in relation with the ideal of purity represented by the high-fidelity loudspeaker. While the technological development of the loudspeaker aims for a perfect reproduction of an idealised and autonomous sound, materially mediated sound diffusion merges sound and matter into an agglomerate where the sound can no longer be perceived as an autonomous entity, but rather in relation to its material source. Engaging electronic musicianship in materiality gives rise to a hybrid setting at the interface of the digital, the material and the human, where the context – the environment of sound-emitting objects – becomes an object of composition.