[03]c8400: The Ghost in the Machine
rAdioCUSTICA selected 2005 | 17:34
c8400 is a number in hexadecimal format. my number. the number i am. i am many numbers given to me by different institutions. and then there are all the logins and nicks to miscellaneous networks and accounts of the web.
C8400 explores the relationship between technology (above all, electronics) and man in the present world. Machines were designed by someone for some purpose. But to what extent does the designer's idea suit people's needs? C8400 uses (or abuses) electronic devices (such as radios, tape recorders, sound mixers) as the very sources of sound. The devices cease to be mere players into which one puts a music recording and become music instruments. They produce hissing, creaking and other odd sounds. Sound carriers, such as tapes, CDs or radio waves, only serve as a sample archive one can "borrow" things from at any time. The device is freed from the slave labor of reproducing music and spoken word, becoming the origin of original soundscapes.
The initial impulse for the c8400 project was my work with electronic devices and an attempt at their creative use, at replanting them into another context. I based my effort on reality, on things surrounding me. I abstracted crude sounds out of crude reality. The outcome was a kind of anti-aesthetic counterpart of playing "music", for which the devices had been designed. While creating sound compositions, I am certainly influenced by the music I listen to. In the end, something from the "music world" and my own life leaks into these machine compositions, no matter whether the form is samples or rhythmical structures. Sounds in c8400 compositions are created mainly by feedbacks or cyclical circuits during which the device interacts with itself while other signals are penetrating it from outside. The feedback communication model is adapted for the device that becomes its central part, being more than just a means of transfer or broadcasting.
