Western Electric by Matthew Ostrowski

The telephones are linked to a computer controlling the sonic output of the bells. Old telephones sound via mechanical rather than electronic means: their bells are struck by clappers. In this work, the telephones have been modified so that the speed and position of the clappers can be voltage-controlled, making possible a wide range of rhythms, sounds and tones – from single peals to muted taps to familiar rings.

This expanded sound palette is used as the material for a compositional structure based on several different algorithms, most of which are designed to model swarm behaviors of relatively simple organisms such as crickets or fireflies. Each telephone is ‘aware’ of what its neighbors are doing sonically, and determines its actions based on a Markov-type decision chain which weights its possible activities such as type of sound, frequency, and intensity based on the activities of its neighbors.