Symbolic Oscillations was my undergaduate thesis project and the result of a yearlong process of theoretical and practical research. I suggested that the implementation of tactile feedback works towards restoring embodied cognitive relationships in digital music systems. I asked whether we may use tactile feedback in another manner, for example, to augment symbolic relationships by physicalizing the relations between sound variables and synthesis processes in digital music systems. This departs from the discussion of how digital instruments engage users in hermeneutic processes of cognition, in contrast to processes of embodied cognition, more typical of the relationship established with acoustic instruments. Finally, I proposed the design and construction of an interactive digital synthesizer system to explore and test the ideas discussed in this paper.

Below is a recording made on the instrument and using a hardware delay and reverb unit.

You can read my entire paper here