Unstable Structure: histories of the modular synthesiser, Artist talk by Alex White

Saturday, May 15 from 5pm-6pm
At MESS Studio

• MESS members and First Nations people $5.50 incl. GST (enter member discount code ‘MODULAR’ at checkout)

• Non-members $11 incl. GST

• Limited places available

The desire to perform in real-time with the possibilities of tape-based studio practice was a key design intention of the first modular synthesisers. The resulting instruments, in particular the Buchla, emphasised possibilities for the creation of musical structure in combination with components designed to enable real-time, expressive interaction.

As smaller, keyboard-based synthesiser instruments achieved broad commercial success, many of the possibilities for the real-time creation and manipulation of musical structures, developed in the larger modular synthesiser designs, were not carried forward into the new age of commercial electronic music instruments. The resurgence of the modular synthesiser has seen these possibilities for improvisation of musical structures revisited, opening up processes and approaches that were almost lost to a new generation.

About Alex White
Sydney-based artist Alex White has orbited the outer ranges of unhinged synthesis, noise and electronics for more than a decade. Alex is currently focused upon using modular synthesisers as composition tools, often controlling other instruments and is undertaking a PhD looking at the impacts of modular synthesisers upon composition processes.
Visit: www.midiisthemindkiller.com Follow: Instagram, Twitter

Photo by Louis Lim