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Music Prosthesis
By Pedro Rebelo		  
Dr. Pedro Rebelo 
Sonic Arts Research Centre
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland
http:/www.sarc.qub.ac.uk/~prebelo/prosthesis

The Music Prosthesis project investigates the notion of technological intervention in musical instruments as prosthesis and its implications for performance. The term prosthesis suggests artificial replacement of a body part. In a medical context, prostheses can amplify electric current generated by muscle contractions or be attached to (natural) muscles. The aim seems to reside in the creation of a hybrid in which an artificial prosthesis responds to a natural body but also inhabits it, causing it in turn to react. The interface between the artificial and the natural creates a fascinating complexity as prosthesis introduces notions of substitution and extension, as well as reaction between the natural and the artificial.

The relationship between an acoustic entity, such as a traditional musical instrument and an electronic sonic counterpart has been at the centre of much compositional, performative and technological exploration. Metaphors of extension and seamlessness have been commonplace in performances that attempt to bridge the acoustic and the electronic. These “smooth” metaphors have in fact been central in Human-Computer-Interaction research since the early nineties. 		 

Music for Prosthetic Congas (Score Extract)
Copyright © Pedro Rebelo
 


Music for Prosthetic Congas (Score Extract)
Copyright © Pedro Rebelo  		  The “Prosthetic Conga” (Rebelo, van Walstijn, 2004) is a hybrid instrument designed by Pedro Rebelo and Maarten van Walstijn at the Sonic Arts Research Centre. It explores the threshold between acoustically and electronically generated sound. Active control techniques are applied to the conga in order to create an instrument that is played in a regular way but with resonance properties that can be modelled in the virtual domain (van Walstijn, Rebelo 2005).

A loudspeaker is used to reinforce, damp or add to the acoustic (natural) resonances excited when the player strikes the membrane. A sensor monitors the membrane motion, from which a source signal is extracted by filtering with the inversion of a set of natural resonances. This source signal is then used to excite an altered set of resonances.
 
The resulting oscillations are projected back into the conga, where they mix with the vibrations excited by the player. The performance "Music for Prosthetic Congas" in which a technological prosthesis is inserted into an acoustic conga drum introduces notions of reaction and rejection in the relationship between acoustic and the electronic resonance. The work comprises a series of analysis and re-synthesis modules which allow for deviations from the acoustic resonance of the conga. In this case, prosthesis is treated as internal and hence visually imperceptible. The unpredictability of reaction is manifested through sound transformations which inform the design of both the musical and choreographed gestures that make up the performance.
 
The interface between prosthesis and the body is not always one of agreement or merging but can also be one of rejection. This rejection represents a physical resistance on part of the host body towards the prosthetic intervention. It is through the possibility of rejection that acoustic thresholds in the work are intensified. The intervention is not linear; rather it is characterised by a type of vulnerability which we see as central to performance. This non-uniform and non-generic intervention carries with it the potential for an improvisatory condition based on reaction and interaction. In other words, the relationship between the player and the instrument is explored by creating an instrument which looks and feels like a regular instrument but behaves differently and unexpectedly.

At the level of notation, the work describes forces to be applied to the instruments rather than sonic results. By thinking of performative action as force vectors in a space which exposes instrumental placement, architectural conditions and the performer herself, the role of notation is reversed. The traditional preoccupation for representation of heard musical events is replaced by the notion of music as a result of contextual relationships between performer and technology.

 

Prosthetic Conga
Copyright © Pedro Rebelo
 

The notion of prosthesis poses important challenges for human-computer-interaction and performances technologies. The work described here celebrates the fragility of performance as intensified by a hybrid instrument based on ideas of intervention and reaction.

References
Rebelo P. van Walstijn M. (2004), Designing Acoustic Thresholds, Les journées du design sonore, IRCAM.

Van Walstijn, Rebelo, P. (2005) The Prosthetic Conga: Towards an Actively Controlled Hybrid Musical Instrument. International Computer Music Conference Proceedings
Accompanying downloads

Sound Bite 1 (Mp3, 948kb)
Sound Bite 2 (Mp3, 420kb)		    
 
Artist Biography
Pedro Rebelo
Born in 1972 - Portugal. Pedro is a composer/digital artist working in electroacoustic music, digital media and installation. His approach to music making is informed by the use of improvisation and interdisciplinary structures. He has been involved in several collaborative projects with visual artists and has created a large body of work exploring the relationships between architecture and music in creating interactive performance and installation environments. This includes a series of commissioned pieces for soloists and live-electronics which take as a basis the interpretation of specific acoustic spaces. In the duo laut with saxophonist Franziska Schroeder he investigates the extension of interfaces and control in interactive performance practices. His electroacoustic music is featured in various CD sets (Sonic Circuits IV, Discontact III, Exploratory Music from Portugal, ARiADA). His audio-visual work "lautomata.3" has recently been awarded the Special Recognition prize from the CynetArt Festival, Dresden.

Pedro conducts research in the field of digital media, interactive sound and composition. His writings reflect his approach to design and composition by articulating creative practice in a wider understanding of cultural theory.

Pedro has been awarded a PhD in composition from the University of Edinburgh and is currently Director of Research at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast
 
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