Recipe for a ghost catcher: an infrasound-powered hybrid instrument-sonic installation

Rubén Bañuelos Preciado

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper delineates the technical build of the interface CLSTR1, an acoustic object that generates acoustic distortion soundscapes (namely the phenomenon here referred to as CLSTR0) when infrasound and low frequency sound are transduced to its membrane and excite metal objects resting on its surface. Through artistic implementations, this paper shows how this acoustic object affords a wide range of modes of interaction that may welcome from none to many human operators—resulting in artistic settings as varied as autonomous sound installations or multiple performers actively playing with CLSTR1 at the same time. Since CLSTR1 semi-autonomously generates aural and visual patterns on a physical surface, it is argued that this interface provides novel technological stacks for interactive sound art practice that can integrate the nuances of acoustic instrument building in tandem with creative computational technologies such as computer vision and AI-powered synthesis. Reflecting on the work of Alvin Lucier and Nicole L’Huillier, this paper traces the aesthetic and practical influences that inspired and shaped the design and artistic outputs of CLSTR1. This research interprets the unpredictable entropic soundscapes and visual patterns of CLSTR0 as agential—not only in the metaphorical sense but as a technical delimitation of the autonomy of the interface’s own changing sonic and visual patterns as active interactive factors, foreign to the intentionality of a given human operator.

Citation

Rubén Bañuelos Preciado. 2026. Recipe for a ghost catcher: an infrasound-powered hybrid instrument-sonic installation. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784356 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_114,
 abstract = {This paper delineates the technical build of the interface CLSTR1, an acoustic object that generates acoustic distortion soundscapes (namely the phenomenon here referred to as CLSTR0) when infrasound and low frequency sound are transduced to its membrane and excite metal objects resting on its surface. Through artistic implementations, this paper shows how this acoustic object affords a wide range of modes of interaction that may welcome from none to many human operators—resulting in artistic settings as varied as autonomous sound installations or multiple performers actively playing with CLSTR1 at the same time. Since CLSTR1 semi-autonomously generates aural and visual patterns on a physical surface, it is argued that this interface provides novel technological stacks for interactive sound art practice that can integrate the nuances of acoustic instrument building in tandem with creative computational technologies such as computer vision and AI-powered synthesis. Reflecting on the work of Alvin Lucier and Nicole L’Huillier, this paper traces the aesthetic and practical influences that inspired and shaped the design and artistic outputs of CLSTR1. This research interprets the unpredictable entropic soundscapes and visual patterns of CLSTR0 as agential—not only in the metaphorical sense but as a technical delimitation of the autonomy of the interface’s own changing sonic and visual patterns as active interactive factors, foreign to the intentionality of a given human operator.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {114},
 author = {Rubén Bañuelos Preciado},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784356},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {4},
 pages = {944--947},
 title = {Recipe for a ghost catcher: an infrasound-powered hybrid instrument-sonic installation},
 track = {paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_114.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}