Symphony of Scraps: Constructing Sound Machines and Producing Scorescapes to Express Tactile Encounters with Sonic Phenomena and their Implications toward Perceptions of Space and Identity
Shane Parker Patience · 2025
This thesis is a reflection on sound’s role as a driving force in shaping my identity as a musician, a designer, and a maker. Through the design and construction of sound machines – while simultaneously using research and recollection to articulate and enrich existing processes for conceptualizing and interrogating sound’s influence – the thesis reveals sound’s physical dimension and explores its intersection with space and identity. Examination is conducted through an interdisciplinary lens comprising historical, scientific, and ethnomusicological contributions to sound-related studies with vital accounts and methodologies of the artificer. The exploration moves beyond understanding sound exclusively in its audible domain, drawing from Martin Daughtry’s concept of the belliphonic, Yolande Harris’ scorescapes, and writings on intuition and design to explore how sound contributes to spatial perception and constructions of identity. By visually registering sonic phenomena, the sound machines present alternative ways to extract meaning and understanding from sonically charged experiences.