phasechange

The Internet Audio Cyclotron

The subversion of technology and the destruction of information as compositional tool and performance process

The Internet Audio Cyclotron, or IAC, is an information-destruction system and a de novo musical instrument, designed to subvert the functionality of networks and compression algorithms. The IAC considers the ideas of Metzger, Attali and Lucier, among others, pertaining to memory and repetition, auto-destructive art, and non-linear, generative creation. Repetition, time lag, compression artefacts and introduced noise become integral to the mastery of the IAC `instrument'. Understanding how these parameters interact fosters a connection between the musician and the system. As a means of performance and composition then, the IAC offers a method for the creation of dynamic indeterminacy. The IAC can be seen as an act of organic rebellion against the tyranny of the algorithm. By the end of a piece, an infinitesimal fraction of the original signal remains, the vast majority having been discarded by the encoding algorithm, but cumulations of compensations for data loss create new signal. The IAC, in practice, presents the artist with both a method for the destruction of audio and, simultaneously, a method of creation.

IAC Case Study: Aurosion

`Aurosion: Eroding Sonic Landscapes with the Internet Audio Cyclotron' was a collaborative, long-form studio performance, broadcast on June 6th 2016 by the radio station ResonanceExtra. The piece, whose seed material consisted of field recordings from locales as diverse as the laboratory and a tropical mangrove forest, lasted six hours and utilised an IAC configuration spanning 15,000 kilometres (from London to Dallas, Texas). Many noise artefacts were introduced during the performance, both algorithmic and artist-generated, resulting in an unrepeatable microstructure, with elements distinct from the seed sounds. These became more prominent over time; for example, in the section `River', emergent sounds were reminiscent of a heavy body being dragged along the ground, or perhaps a hydrophone sunk deep into a stagnant pool of water.