Reflexions upon feedback: a study of feedback musicianship terminology

Feedback is a technique that has been used in musical performance since the advent of electricity. From the early cybernetic explorations of Bebe and Louis Barron, through the screaming sound of Hendrix’s guitar, to the systems design of David Tudor or Nic Collins, we find the origins of feedback in music being technologically and aesthetically diverse. Through interviews with participants in a recent Feedback Musicianship Network symposium, this paper seeks to investigate the contemporary use of this technique and explore how key protagonists discuss the nature of their practice. We see common concepts emerging in these conversations: agency, complexity, coupling, play, design and post-humanism. The paper presents a terminological and ideological framework as manifested at this point in time, and makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of the rationale and potential of this technological and compositional approach.