Third year dBs Manchester student Will Amson shares a sneak peek into 'Determinism'; his exciting audio installation for Innovation in Sound Manchester.
Will Amson AKA Symmol joined dBs Manchester in our very first cohort back in 2022. During his studies, Will has excelled in his production skills and last year released, 'When We Decay', a 4-track EP on Mr. Bill's label, Billegal Beats.
His recent ventures into Max MSP have further expanded his innovative approach within the electronic sound world, acting as the foundation behind his first sonic art installation, 'Determinism'; an interactive sound installation project that reinterprets audio that is recorded by visitors using either their voice or a selection of instruments provided.
Can you explain your project, 'Determinism'?
'Determinism' is based around two concatenative synthesis devices I built in Max for Live, which essentially means there’s two big database of grain-sized samples that are recorded when people interact with the installation, being categorised based on different attributes like pitch and timbre.
Whenever someone interacts with the installation, as well as recording samples, the devices store the attributes of the recording and reconstruct it using samples already in the database for the other microphone, so if you speak into the right hand microphone, the devices will attempt to reconstruct the audio with samples from the instrument microphone.
What inspired you to create this project?
I actually have no idea. I think it was from me racking my brain for something interesting to do for an installation that I could create with Max, and this kind of generative and evolving reactive concatenative synthesis idea was what stuck.
What were some of the key technical processes involved in bringing your project to life?
It entirely focused on using Max for Live and developing the devices, so the most important processes we learning Max over the last year and what objects were available to help achieve the goal and designing the functionality and signal flow of the devices.
Are there plans to create a release based on the sounds that are created during the exhibition?
Not currently, but I’m considering repurposing the devices into sound design plugins that can be used to generate unique phrases, loops and glitches.
What are you most looking forward to about exhibiting your work?
One thing I’m excited to see is how people who don’t know the installation interact with it, and how people interact in new and unique ways that I never thought of, and what an even wider range of samples for the database can result in. I’m also really excited to see everyone else’s projects fully realised and on display, because there were some really cool ideas.
FIND OUT MORE
https://www.instagram.com/symmolofficial/
Queer identity in the dial up age - Innovation in Sound 2025
Innovation in Sound 2025 Manchester is a multi-day free showcase taking place at
Altogether Otherwise from Thursday 29th May - Monday 9th June
To check out Will's project in-person and many others, visit Eventbrite to secure your free tickets.
