Untitled
3 × channel sound, prints and foam insulation board
Joe Gilmore, Scott Mclaughlin
Space, University of Leeds
2025

Untitled is a collaborative sound installation which emerged from a short residency as part of an exhibition series titled 'Conversations – A Sonic Dialogue' at the University's School of Design. The work explores sound as a dynamic, interdependent system. Three loudspeakers diffuse two generative processes coded in Max/MSP, each with its own logic yet bound by shared information. One system employs internal feedback within a virtual room simulation whose shape continuously shifts. This produces fragile tones and low-level noise that hover between control and chaos, revealing the instability inherent in feedback networks. The second system introduces a contrasting layer of quiet percussive gestures, generated through probabilistic algorithms and Markov chains. These patterns emerge unpredictably, creating subtle rhythmic textures that respond to the evolving state of the feedback system.

The two processes influence each other in real time, forming a sonic ecology where no single element dominates. Instead, the piece privileges emergence over fixity: sound unfolds as a negotiation between algorithmic chance, systemic interdependence and spatial resonance. By foregrounding instability and relational dynamics, the work invites listeners into a space of continual becoming – an environment where structure and fragility coexist, and where the act of listening becomes an encounter with a living system.