Volume 23, Special Issue 2 (New Wor(l)ds for Old Sounds
August 2018 , pp. 167-180
The Anthropomorphic Analogy: Humanising musical machines in the early modern and contemporary eras
Rebecca Cypess and Steven Kemper
3.4. Biophysical music: Marco Donnarumma and Michaela Davies
Beyond augmenting the body with sensor-based interfaces, some artists have embraced cyborg identities through the amplification and control of their own biophysical signals. Rather than using prosthetic augmentations to the body, as in the cases described in the previous section, practitioners of biophysical music explore amplification and processing of biological signals to create musical sound. Marco Donnarumma describes biophysical music as ‘a kind of electronic music performance based on a combination of physiological technology and markedly physical, gestural performance…
Musical expression thus arises from an intimate and, often, not fully predictable negotiation of human bodies, interfaces and programmatic musical ideas’ (Donnarumma 2017: 64). Since the 1960s, several projects have incorporated biosignals into the production of electronic music. Pauline Oliveros’s Valentine (1968) and Merce Cunningham’s Loops (1971) create music out of the sounds of amplified heartbeat (Pressing 1990: 13). Alvin Lucier (Music for Solo Performer) and David Rosenboom (Brainwaves Music) used EEG data for musical performance. The BioMuse system by Benjamin Knapp and Hugh Lusted used EEG as well as EMG data from muscle movements for musical purposes (Tanaka 2011: 247–8).
Both Donnarumma and Michaela Davies employ technologies to convert low-level muscular movements into musical output. Donnarumma has developed the Xth Sense system, which uses mechanomyogram (MMG) signals from microphones attached to the body. In performance, the sound of this signal is directly amplified and processed. Additionally, the system applies feature extraction, enabling the MMG signal to control other aspects of processing (Donnarumma 2012: 2–3). While Donnarumma’s work generates music from the sound of muscle movements,
Davies’ work employs electric muscle stimulation (EMS) to send electrical impulses to performers’ muscles. These impulses produce specific involuntary movements that are used to actuate acoustic instruments (Davies n.d.). By using MIDI-generated electrical impulses to control muscle movement, Davies’ approach turns the human body into an electromechanically driven instrument. In this sense, Davies’ work realises aspects of the seventeenth century theories described above – especially Descartes’ notion of human responses to music as related to the mechanical responses of automata.
As noted above, Donnarumma explains that performances of biophysical music focus on the body’s gestures, and typically sonify bodily movements. The body is both an instrument and an autonomous being – human and machine. Both Donnarumma and Davies’ musical performances consciously reflect the blurred lines between these categories. Donnarumma describes the piece Corpus Nil as follows: ‘A naked body, partly human and partly machine, lies on stage. It is an amorphous cluster of skin, muscles, hardware and software’ (Donnarumma n.d.; Figure 10). Donnarumma also invokes the idea of the cyborg in this piece:
‘In an unstable feedback loop, the body and the machine pollute each other. The amorphous being on stage slowly evolves into an unfamiliar creature’ (ibid.).
Davies has created several projects that incorporate EMS technology to produce musical sounds. Compositions for Involuntary Strings pairs string players who are augmented with EMS technology with performers on acoustic instruments (Figure 11). This series of pieces plays with the notion of human and mechanical performance, reflecting Haraway’s idea that we are all cyborgs mediated by technology. As Davies writes in the programme notes for Untitled, written for Cyborg String Quartet, ‘Inserting robotic elements into this continuing emblem of Western classical tradition, this 18th-century-meets-cyborg string quartet provides a stark example of the man/machine interfacing that is central to most contemporary music creation, production and performance, and points to our growing reliance upon machines to perform repetitive or difficult tasks we used to do ourselves’ (Davies n.d.). EMS is used to produce tremolo and other complex rhythmic effects through rapid muscle stimulation. These actions are replicated by the non-augmented performers. As in Corpus Nil, the performance of this piece features