Transforming performance with HASGS: research-led artistic practice in augmented instruments

Abstract

Drawing on the development and technical possibilities of Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses (HASGS) as a case study, this paper aims at discussing the optimization of augment instruments and the role of research on the transformation of performance. In recent decades, the compositional exploration of instrumental writing has generated a plethora of resources by means of which the possibilities of performance were greatly enhanced, both regarding the development of innovative musical instruments and the integration of external technological devices including digital technology, electronic materials and sonic repositories in traditional performance practice. Considering the proliferation of resources used in augmented instruments performance, HASGS was developed as an academic project aimed at optimising performance by electronically controlling parameters in mixed music performed in the mechanical instrument, thus reducing the recourse to external control devices for electronic purposes. The HASGS system was initially developed according to a “do it yourself” (DiY) logic, emerging as a response to some of the repertoire written for it, namely, works for saxophone and electronics. The same approach was adopted at the initial phase of prototypes construction. The actual system is constituted by an ESP32 card, providing Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, while based on a digital fabrication solution that can be directly integrated into the instrument’s body, thus making of the saxophone a hybrid instrument – both an acoustic instrument and an electronic controller. The remaining components of HASGS include a ribbon sensor, a four button keypad, a trigger button, two pressure sensors, up and down selectors, and an accelerometer. In order to depict HASGS’ expressive and technical potential and to promote new repertoire based on it, a table of the system’s suggested mappings was presented to composers, outlining the possibilities of communication between its sensors and softwares. In the context of a performance practice in which the interpreter is required to be a creative agent within a multidimensional context of sonic manipulation, improvisation and expressive extension and augmentation, HASGS is shown both as a contribute to the optimisation of this new virtuosity and as a result of the changing role of academic research in the transformation of artistic practice.