ALLOPHONE
As the placard says:
“ALLOPHONE” refers to two things:
1. “sounds that are regarded as contextual or environmental variants of the same [sound]” (Collins English Dictionary, 2014);
2. a musical instrument which, like the saxophone or the sousaphone, is named after its originator, in this case, Justin Alley (www.ALLONYM.me).
At bottom, the ALLOPHONE is an ergonomic grouping of piezo transducers, half of which act as transmitters and half of which act as receivers. The idea is to tap into the wonders of the related phenomena of feedback and resonance. The uses of this instrument are understood to be undelimited. That said, two primary and interconnected modes immediately present themselves. The first is to generate unique sounds through physical interactions at the site of the piezo disks. The second is to spectrally manipulate external sound sources by manually damping and undamping the piezo disks. All can partake in the laying on of hands!
I’ll have to try to get some sound samples after the exhibition is over in a month or so. In the meantime, you can go see it and some of the other works on display as part of the Orchestra Obscura show at the Center for New Music.
Here are some photos documenting the design and build process:
