Misuse as Creation in Electronic Music - A History and Practical Suggestion by August Norborg

In this thesis the author explores the term ”misuse” as a methodology of composition, but also proposes to view it as an informal tradition within the history of electronic music. The author explores the possible definitions of the term ”misuse”, proposing to view it as an inherently destabilizing practice, where the practitioner must reject the defining of a strict identity. The author also highlights the shift away from mastery of technology to a more equal, exploratory relationship that occurs within the practice, as well as its ability to chart the materiality of said practice. The author proposes that this tradition re-occurs historically as both a technical, aesthetic and philosophical phenomenon, serving as a progressive force within the wider genre of electronic music and often as part of a consciously rebellious practice. The author explores how this methodology can be applied within their own contemporary compositional practice using the software Ableton Live, chronicling their own explorations of generating sound via different misuses of the software, including sound examples. Finally, the author evaluates the applicability of this method on their own artistic practice through 2 attached compositions, and gives testimony to their experience and insights working with the material.

Collision/Corpus and Tension, the Endless Material:

(I wish to credit Karl Zinn Hansen for sharing the following method and providing guidance)

One of the biggest revelations I found in generating material for this project has been the Collision, Corpus and Tension plugins. These are physical modeling synthesizers, meaning they use advanced mathematics to recreate the sound of interacting with physical objects. In the example of Collision/Corpus the objects are beams, kalimba, membranes, plates, tubes and pipes, and in the case of Tension (insert here). You also have to choose your way of interacting with the object, Collision providing a simulated mallet hit with changeable parameters and a noise source that simulates a sort of scraping of the material, while Corpus is an audio effect using the input as the inciting device and Tension providing (insert here).
The complexity of the sounds that are being generated, as well as the complexity of creating the sounds in comparison to a more traditional synthesizer, means that the devices are both more unstable than others and incredibly ripe for generating unexpected sounds. At times the Collision/Corpus device will simply stop generating sounds and have to be reloaded, making it a device that satisfyingly pushes against its own seams, often bursting them.
A good starting point for the device is to push the brightness knob up 100%, the inharmonics knob down to -100% (this in particular seems to be something that will immediately render very glitchy sounds) and the coarse pitch knob down -48 while playing at the very bottom of the Ableton piano roll. You have now set the device up so that any sound that comes out by definition is not one that uses the range intended to emulate real objects.
From here it is play. Only this setup can create quite wild sounds, for example by dragging around the circle controlling both decay length and material size (what does material do exactly).
While Collision provides you with two oscillators, one can create further layers with the corpus effect, which can be made more interesting by layering effects and then finishing the chain with the corpus.
If one is to analyze what is happening and gain slightly more control, it is important to remember that each oscillator acts as an exciter for the next, with it responding to the exact nature of the excitation. Therefore, a single oscillator generating very fragmented clicks can become a much richer sound if simply followed by something that responds more richly to it. With this knowledge you can better start to realize what is desirable to change at which part of the chain.
An example I encountered was a moment when I was unable to understand why me quickly turning the inharmonics knob from -100% to 100% on oscillator 1 was causing a sound to gradually build. It was at this moment I realized the actual complexity of the physical modeling programming. As oscillator 1 was very softly exciting oscillator 2, oscillator 2s material was responding as a material being gradually excited as it would be in real life. This is something that was unacheivable by simply using MIDI notes to ”hit” the object.
Using tension one can…
This method is even more endless in character than other methods. The sounds can vary from glitchy sounds to pure tones and heavy bass sounds, and might be one of the best examples of how a technique can fill a whole practice.

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August Norborg - Misuse as Creation in Electronic Music - A History and Practical Suggestion - 2022