The Speculative Organological Model

Composing the instrument

Composing music can also mean composing the conditions under which musical actions occur. The Speculative Organological Model (SOM) treats the instrument as an assemblage whose materials, behaviours and relations can be transformed.

Three layers

The acoustic layer concerns physical systems: excitation, resonance, coupling, propagation, simulation and fabrication. The ontological layer examines relations between performers, technical objects, algorithms and environments. The fictional layer introduces designed impossibilities and speculative constraints as research propositions.

These layers support different ways of asking what an instrument could become. A fictional design is a hypothesis to explore; a simulation is a model to examine; a built instrument requires testing in practice.

A grammar of relations

MOAIE decomposes an instrument into Material, Object, Agent, Interaction and Environment. Principles such as feedback, transduction and coupling operate across these dimensions. OPS develops transformation procedures; SOOG makes the relations diagrammatic and computationally legible.

This is an evolving research model. Its contribution is investigated through the instruments, situations and works it helps produce.