_Equilibrium Variant_ is intended to explore the occurrence of the Larsen effect (also known as feedback) through the use of mobile devices in three-dimensional space. The distinctive screech of the Larsen effect typically occurs when a microphone catches the sound emitted by a speaker. It starts when the microphone is located too close to the speaker and interferes with its frequency. The microphone amplifies and reproduces the speaker’s frequency at an ever-increasing width, virtually unlimited though in practice stopped by the amplifier’s clip. Two mechanical arms are mounted on a stand. At the end of one arm there is a microphone, at the end of the other there is a speaker. Software manages the position of the arms dynamically and ensures that the distance between the microphone and the speaker never causes the amplifier to clip. In this way, the system tends to reach an equilibrium that is physically impossible to attain. The struggle for balance creates an acoustic and visual dimension that is never the same: the frequency of feedback and the movements of the mechanical arms are always different and change in real time. In nature, the phenomenon of feedback is the capacity of a system to regulate itself, taking into account the effects of certain modifications to its features. All living beings experience this condition.

This project introduces this phenomenon into the world of cybernetics through the use of sound. Sound makes all the movements extremely harmonic and natural, and the mechanical arms show a movement pattern that is similar to the behavior of living beings, such as two animals fighting or courting. The system changes into a biomechanical organism that has its own life and reacts to external influences. 

Links: www.robertopugliese.com

Roberto Pugliese (IT), born 1982, divides his time between teaching (musical systems and electroacoustic and informatics laboratory), playing music and realizing sound installations. His research primarily derives its energy from two artistic currents—of sound art and of kinetic and programmed art. Using software-controlled mechanical tools that interact among themselves, with the environment that surrounds them and with the observer, he aims to examine new areas of research in sound phenomena, to analyze the processes that the human psyche uses to differentiate structures of natural origin from artificial ones (acoustic as well as visual), to discover the relationship between man and technology and the relationship between art and technology without ever losing sight of the visual aspect.