Biomimicry in Electroacoustic Composition: Conceptual frameworks and prototypes
Daniel Blinkhorn, Nicholas McConaghy · Organised Sound · 2024
Biomimicry shifts focus away from anthropocentric design approaches and encourages practitioners to develop a sensitivity to the interconnectedness of natural systems and their resultant potentiality as musical forms. Embracing the concepts of biomimicry necessitates a perspectival transformation from human authorship towards a reciprocal partnership with nature that stresses sustainable technological innovation in artistic expression. The need to solve design challenges in harmony with a broader ecological context means that biomimicry represents a new form of environmentally attuned sonic practice that is both communicative and interpretative of systems operating outside everyday human experience. This research employs the biomimetic process to unravel and respond to issues related to the development of form and structure at the locus of compositional practice. Furthermore, it utilises these insights to generate new knowledge through the activities of this practice and the novel insights apprehended through the triangulation of science, nature and music. Finally, it uses biomimicry to impact the compositional trajectory practically, extending beyond metaphor or representation, and offers a glimpse into realms that are more than music, more than human.