Music Technology Honors Senior Project

This project was my senior honors project that was the culmination of the experience I gained as an ICAM major throughout my time at UCSD. The project was a series of multichannel electroacoustic compositions for flute and electronics that utilized electronics sensors (force sensitive resistors) attached to the flute like additional keys to control various audio effect parameters. The idea behind the project was to challenge existing paradigms in human-computer interaction for electroacoustic music. I saw two primary existing paradigms: electronics as linear augmentation of the acoustic source and electronics as a second voice. The first utilizes audio effects to transform the sound of a flute that was idiosyncratic to the flute as a source like reverb and delays. The second uses pre-recorded tapes as a second voice that the acoustic instrument performs in a dialogue with. I looked to present a third option, electronics as non-linear augmentation of the source where both playback and live processing were utilized to create a feedback loop of interaction between acoustic and electronic source. Furthermore, the use of granular and modular effects look to detach the listener from their knowledge of the flute as a sound object, presenting a new take on sound design for the flute as an augmented instrument.