A Yellow Box with a Key Switch and a 1/4" TRS Balanced Audio Output

Marinos Koutsomichalis

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This short article presents a reductionist infra-instrument. It concerns a yellow die-cast aluminium box only featuring a key switch and a 1/4” TRS balanced audio output as its UI. On the turn of the key, the device performs a certain poem in Morse code and via very low frequency acoustic pulses; in this way, it transforms poetry into bursts of intense acoustic energy that may resonate a hosting architecture and any human bodies therein. It is argued that the instrument functions at the very same time as a critical/speculative electronic object, as an ad-hoc performance instrument, and as a piece of (conceptual) art on its own sake.

Citation

Marinos Koutsomichalis. 2021. A Yellow Box with a Key Switch and a 1/4" TRS Balanced Audio Output. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.21428/92fbeb44.765a94a7 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{NIME21_5,
 abstract = {This short article presents a reductionist infra-instrument. It concerns a yellow die-cast aluminium box only featuring a key switch and a 1/4” TRS balanced audio output as its UI. On the turn of the key, the device performs a certain poem in Morse code and via very low frequency acoustic pulses; in this way, it transforms poetry into bursts of intense acoustic energy that may resonate a hosting architecture and any human bodies therein. It is argued that the instrument functions at the very same time as a critical/speculative electronic object, as an ad-hoc performance instrument, and as a piece of (conceptual) art on its own sake.},
 address = {Shanghai, China},
 articleno = {5},
 author = {Koutsomichalis, Marinos},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.21428/92fbeb44.765a94a7},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/_IUT0tbtkBI},
 title = {A Yellow Box with a Key Switch and a 1/4" TRS Balanced Audio Output},
 url = {https://nime.pubpub.org/pub/n69uznd4},
 year = {2021}
}