Speaker Synth

Speakers and microphones are complementary devices. They're both transducers and do the same things, simply with the signal flow reversed. Speaker feedback illustrates this relationship and addresses the notion that speakers and microphones are two of the most important inventions of the 20th century because they allow us to transmit, record, and disembody sound. Feedback is usually considered a bad thing, but it can also be a beautiful idea about communication.

Speaker Synth is a kinetic, sculptural instrument built by Lesley Flanigan to play the sounds of speaker feedback. Her performances with these instruments are a process of sculpting noise to make music as she samples sounds from her voice and feedback to create a pallet of melodies and rhythms. The interplay of feedback and voice takes metaphors of noise as material, instrumentation as form, and amplification as communication to build a performance of new electronic music originating entirely from human voice and speaker feedback.

Speaker Synth can be performed as a musical instrument and arranged in various configurations to create immersive sound works from spatial soundscapes to electronic music compositions. These installations and/or performances reveal a sculptural process shaping noise to make sound. The main components of Speaker Synth are amplifying circuits between a piezoelectric microphone and speaker, on/off control, volume, and the hands of the performer. Additional controls include switches that communicate with a computer to allow for remote sampling of sounds and sequencing of on/off states during an installation or performance, and create the sense that the speakers have a life of their own. With these basic elements, a wide range of speaker feedback tones and rhythms can be “sculpted”. Speaker Synth has been presented and performed at numerous clubs, conferences, and art venues including Exit Art (NYC), Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral (NYC), The Bent Festivals (NYC and LA), and Monkey Town (Brooklyn); and will be featured in the 2nd edition of Nicolas Collins' "Hardware Hacking: The Art of Handmade Electronic Music."