Dynamical Systems, Mimesis, and Analogy in Experimental Music

Music and dynamical systems share aspects of patterning, repetition, and variation over time, but most music that references dynamical systems as a compositional influence are mimetic representations of the system, the music is a static ’snapshot’ of the system. I propose an approach where the compositional and performative processes are analogous to the dynamical system, and the music develops in realtime through performance, acting as a model of the system in musical form. The dynamical system process is translated from the mathematical to the musical/performative, retaining its mechanisms but in a new medium. This paper will explore two examples of previous mimetic approaches, and a brief exposition on similarities between dynamical systems and musical indeterminacy (in experimental music). I will then present examples from my work There are Neither Wholes Nor Parts (2011), showing how feedback and hysteresis are used to create musical processes that affords non-linear and emergent sound structures.