The core of this project is to establish a set of artistic means through which electronic instruments and timbres (created through computer software) can be successfully integrated with acoustic instruments in both improvisational and compositional contexts. The success of this project may be measured in terms of how well I manage to describe and, through the development of a series of works, implement models for artistic creation (compositional and improvisational) where acoustic and electronic instruments interact.
At the outset the thesis was that if a seamless integration of digital and analog instruments is the object, i.e. both on the level of sound and performance, and we do not wish to compromise the 'human feel' of the performance1, then we need to make the digital instruments approach the analog instruments, both on the level of sound and performance. Hence, the research question may in essence be articulated as: how does one accomplish this seamless integration? Since this question is too broad to handle in a PhD project it has been limited to a test of the following case: Can an interactive system that uses sound as its object of interaction provide the necessary premises for an integration of digital and analog sound sources on the level of both sound (as it is perceived) and performance (as it is experienced)?
I will return to this research question in an attempt to untangle its meanings, contextualize the field in which this research is performed and discuss the environments in which the results of the research may have significance. But before that, I will present the tools with which I will make these descriptions and the method with which I will present the work in progress; i.e. the meta-method of this article.