Aesthetic: Indeterminacy

Indeterminacy is the quality of being uncertain, unclear, and not completely decided.

The outcome, meaning or value of the work is left open to interpretation and is not fully controlled by the artist. John Cage pioneered the aesthetic in the early 1950s as a rejection of viewing the artist as a controlling genius, aiming to strip ego and control from the creative process to embrace the natural unpredictability of life and sound.

Intention:

I aim to explore how a graphic notation I created can be interpreted by another musician within the context of indeterminacy. By creating three visual scores with varying levels of structure, I’ll investigate which forms of notation are most effective at conveying my ideas, and what kinds of meaning naturally emerge when the result is left open to performer response and chance. This process also challenges my own perfectionism by allowing the final musical outcomes to be shaped collaboratively rather than fully controlled by me.

My graphic notations are themselves interpretations of the instrumental composition “Underground” by Lindsey Stirling. I intend to compare multiple layers of interpretation between the original work, my visual scores, the performer’s musical response, and my own production treatment of the final recording.

Outcome:

Moses’ interpretation on piano almost sounded like ambience, complimenting his spoken word narration which he had sent separately. He narrated ideas surrounding juxtaposition, segmentation, and strong visual imagery.

I layered the piano interpretation underneath his narration, and it sounded like the piano was playing what he was saying. I never could have predicted what his outcome would have been, and the spoken word added another interpretive layer, turning the piece into a combination of music, text, and atmosphere. After manipulating effects such as reverb and delay, the final track developed a reflective and cinematic quality. The outcome demonstrated how a visual score can generate meaning beyond the composer’s control, allowing Moses’ response and my subtle production choices to shape the final work.

Process:

I created three visual scores based on my personal listening experience of Underground by Lindsey Stirling. I sent those graphic notations to my friend Moses and invited him to musically interpret one or more of the scores.

The first notation was entirely abstract and contained no instructional framework, allowing for complete interpretive freedom. The second and third notations introduced varying levels of structure through the inclusion of a legend explaining what certain colours, shapes, and visual gestures could represent musically. The choice between the abstract and more structured scores was left entirely to the discretion of Moses.

After receiving Moses’ interpretation, I layered his spoken word narration over his piano performance on Ableton Live and began arranging the composition. I added reverb and subtle delay to compliment the ambient quality of the production.

Reflection:

This process showed me how unpredictable musical interpretation can be when control is shared with another performer. Even though the visual scores came from my own listening experience, the final piano interpretation reflected the performer’s personal response.

The spoken word narration added an unexpected layer of meaning, making me feel immersed in the story the piano was trying to tell. By processing the recording with reverb and delay, I realised that I was also interpreting the performer’s interpretation of my interpretation, creating multiple layers between the original song, my notation, his performance and my final production. The piece emerged from openness.

Aesthetic: Plunderphonics

Plunderphonics is a compositional technique and musical aesthetic in which new tracks are created entirely through the sampling, rearranging, and manipulation of existing, recognisable audio recordings.

The term was coined by Canadian composer John Oswald in his 1985 essay “Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative.” This form of sound collage questions ideas surrounding authorship, ownership, copyright, and originality within music by transforming pre-existing recordings into new compositions.

Intention:
I aim to explore how pre-existing audio recordings can be transformed into new musical works. I’ll create a track built entirely around sampling and manipulating recognisable
existing material and investigate how a new meaning can emerge when an original recording is placed within a different context, arrangement, and production style.

Outcome:
I was surprised by how effectively the composition evolved into something emotionally distinct from the original recording. By integrating elements of “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers into an entirely new arrangement, the track developed its own identity while still retaining fragments of recognisable source material.

The recontextualised final composition demonstrates how familiar recordings can take on entirely different meanings
once manipulated and placed within a new sonic environment.

Process:
I sampled “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers and Daya, constructing the track through fragmentation, rearrangement, and manipulation of vocal, melodic, and rhythmic elements from the original recording. The composition itself was built entirely from pre-existing audio material, including samples sourced through splice and selected raw stems from the original recording.

Throughout the production process, I spent countless hours experimenting extensively with arrangement, layering, vocal chops, rhythmic restructuring, effects manipulation, and atmospheric processing to transform the emotional context of the original song into something entirely new.

Reflection:
I had no idea that I was capable of creating something like this composition. It’s probably the track I’m the proudest of so far. Not only did I successfully create a Plunderphonics track, I also obtained a spark inside of me that is urging me to explore this aesthetic more, and have a go at remixing some tracks.

This project challenged my understanding of originality within music production, demonstrating that new artistic identity can emerge through reinterpretation and manipulation rather than entirely from scratch. It also reinforced how production, arrangement, and sonic
context can fundamentally reshape the way listeners emotionally interpret existing recordings.

Aesthetic: Surrealism

Surrealism is an art movement that explores the subconscious mind by combining dreamlike elements with reality. It was founded and defined by French writer and poet Andre Breton in his 1924 book “Manifesto of Surrealism.” Influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories in “The Interpretation of Dreams” (1899), surrealists believed that excessive rationality and logic led to WWI.

In response, the movement embraced imagination, irrationality, dreams, and subconscious thought. It grew out of Dadaism, with artists like Max Ernst transitioning from Dada’s anti-art absurdity towards a more psychologically explorative and constructive artistic approach. In music, surrealism rejects logical structures by using juxtaposition, improvisation, and collage.

Intention:

I aim to explore how surrealist techniques can blur the boundary between dreams, memory, and reality within music. By combining unexpected sounds, imagery and contrasting musical ideas, I’ll investigate how emotional meaning can emerge through subconscious association rather than logical narrative structure. Through this process, I’ll explore how irrationality, juxtaposition and dreamlike transitions can create a psychologically immersive listening experience.

Outcome:

I was able to illustrate a visual narrative entirely through the arrangement and sonic atmosphere rather than explicit storytelling. Listening back to the composition, I often found myself surprised, particularly by the unexpected breaks and transitions. The piece created a shifting sonic environment that blurred the boundary between familiarity and distortion.

Emotional continuity still emerged through the consistency of the guitar, recurring textures, transitions, and melodic fragments. The unpredictability created psychologically immersive listening experience, demonstrating how emotional meaning can persevere through subconscious association rather than logical narrative structure, which ultimately inspired the title “Reverse Psychology.”

Process:

I rearranged an existing composition into a surrealist production by manipulating and reversing sections of instrumentation, introducing abrupt drum cuts, experimenting with effects, and fragmenting guitar, vocal and phaser chops.

The arrangement begins with a relatively traditional structure before gradually introducing surrealist techniques such as juxtaposition, irrational transitions, and distorted sonic shifts.

Throughout the production process, I manipulated audio through reversing, chopping, layering, and experimental transitions to blur the boundary between coherence and distortion.

Reflection:

The final rendition of “Reverse Psychology” emerged after countless hours of play, experimentation, and intuition. I was surprised at how vividly I could visualise a narrative purely through the arrangement and sonic atmosphere without explicit storytelling or lyrics.

Surrealist techniques such as reversals, fragmented textures, abrupt cuts, and dreamlike transitions made me feel like I was experiencing visuals with the production as the soundtrack in a dream.

In the future, I could expand these ideas further by translating the visual imagery inspired by the music into painting, narrative writing, or even a short film. This process demonstrated how surrealist music can function as a catalyst for imagination, visual interpretation, and emotional storytelling that extends far beyond traditional songwriting conventions.