Knowing that Knurl represents the change or rotation of mindsetsand roles of music making, it was important to offer the opportunity to express new artistic ideas by its rotation movement in its physical structure.
The research for the right format and style of Knurl's physical structure required multiple results of a long-term practice as an industrial designer. With the application of CAD software, 3D interfaces and technology, the shape of Knurl started to signify a circular torqued hexagon, resembling what is also known as a knurlingsurface. In the first prototype of its case, these torquid shapes started to become evident to me and to the people connected to the project.
Designing physical format for a need or use isn't always necessary when building an instrument. It can be partially avoided when involving digital technology that doesn’t require a physical space. Since “in electronic music, material and shape no longer determine the sound that can be emitted” (BAALMAN, 2019 P.232). From the latest prototypes of 2021, It became more important to define first the necessary components and their representation in order to find later a physical representation or its placement in Knurl. For example, buttons, contact mics and speakers were experimented a lot until getting its final format in october 2021.
3.2.1. Practice
The design of Knurl’s format is no longer an introspective reflection when, during the course of 75 prototypes and numerous testing cycles, I collected extensive amounts of feedback from relatives, friends and musicians. Sharing my concerns with them about bringing Knurl’s design values into its physical and visual identity, I quite often received two interesting points of feedback that were unrelated to the instrument’s physical shape. This all pointed to a question from another perspective, one which concerned future users of the instrument. Specifically, the question was about the concern of a potential customer (performer) playing the instrument and how the performer’s body position would be when playing Knurl. A second question concerned how Knurl could visually communicate potentially by light settings (see Figure X below for a depiction of some experiments with light settings).
Nicolò Merendino (my designer collaborator for the project) and I started to develop a system where Knurl could be played by a standing performer. The goal of this was to avoid any impairments that a sitting playing position could have on a performance. Secondly, standing while playing Knurl could create performances that would be more suitable to a circular format with a more dispersed audience.
One future trajectory on Knurl would be developing also the bowing technique, which constantly oblies the musician to bend your body over the instrument and also work with the linear range of its strings. In order to establish a relationship with this new body movement, the light became not only a visual feedback for its interface, but also a connection to enhance the movement of the circular bow. Knurl got a 3D bow detailed by a set of LEDs that represent the speed of the sound and interact with the rotation of the instrument.
3.2.2. Artistic Result
- Within Without, performance in Theater Carré: A multi performance concert from Salvador Breed and Nick Verstand.
In July 2021, I was invited by Salvador to improvise with some pre-recorded percussive sounds and to improvise with Knurl for circa 7 minutes with very professional staging in Amsterdam’s Theater Carré. We realized a total of 12 performances during the summer of 2021. And during this time, the design of Knurl transformed throughout the production. Since I had to play in the dark, I received a request to create a version of the instrument entirely in white. This request resulted in me making a new prototype of Knurl, knowing that to have a white-color instrument would help the visibility in dark and indoor performances. (Example in the figure below)
Takeaways from this collaboration also included a moment within a piece that embodies the full music expression of having 24 strings tuned into an unconventional tuning system. I was able to rotate the instrument freely and explore its widest combinations of tones and open strings. In this improvisation I was inspired to understand the relationship of formats by working with artistic qualities that could represent Balance proportion and contrast along the performancein relation to the combination of the visuals projected around me.
- DIY music instruments festival (performance at Morphine Records, Berlin)
During a demonstration concert of Knurl that took 3 hours, I shared the stage with another two sound artists, Hasan Hujairi and Laure Boer. During the concert, I had to teach them how to play Knurl live, embodying its concept and features on the fly. During a few discussions and demonstrations, Hasan, Laure and the public seemed to be fascinated with the concept of embodying a speaker into an instrument. We had a few discussions about considering speakers as an instrument itself and how to apply them into the instrument and to use it as an artistic tool. Laure and Hasan had the experience to perform using Knurl incorporating its speaker as a source of expression and artistic quality.
