During research into quantum improvisation I came across a video of Suzie Shrubb, composer and performer, leading a conference on her work with particle physics as a means of improvisation. Coining the particle detectors as ‘Atomophones’, taking inspiration from the name ‘Membranophones’, given to materials stretched over an instrument like a drum, she goes on to explain how these detectors can be used compositionally.
Mentioning that much music usually emerges with and from a social context, she states how, in the case of particle physics, the context is the relative fields and masses of the particles at play. Using this idea, she supports her vision of the universe as a piece of music continually composing itself, that we find ourselves in the middle of all the time.
Applying this to particle physics, she explains how identifying different kinds of quarks, which are the fundamental constituents of matter, in a proton has provided her with new harmonic, scalic and rhythmic structures and patterns as well as new narrative and formulaic possibilities.
Taking the energy and masses of each quark found in a proton and turning it into a figure that could be translated into hertz, and thus a note, is the method she applied to gain the relative pitches of said quarks. Using these to create a new tuning system, free from the constraints of equal temperament, the interaction of these particles can be used as instructional brainfood for compositional ideas.
Another example of this would be her method of exploiting the Circle of Fifths, in order to denote an Anti Quark as the diminished 5th of the original Quark, as it would theoretically be on the opposite side of the circle.
Her method involves a combination of technological instruction and human decision. She even states her self awareness of the fact that some of her subsequent decisions regarding the composition may not fit with the physics, but is still an idea that she remains excited to explore, which interests me as an idea that perhaps the involvement of technology and music is a lot more mutable than I initially thought when first reading Oliveros’ essay on the subject matter.
Categories