(a picture of a prototype dual guitar pick)

I am a musician and I am always in the process of creating something new and defining and redefining my sound.  The guitar is the main instrument (besides my voice) that I play and is an extension of my own body.  One of the main interfaces of my biological vehicle and the guitar can be found within my right hand—the pick.  Over many years I have tried many picks and then settled with a Dunlop .60mm nylon pick that defines my specific sound and style.  Now with the technology to 3D print so many things, I saw an opportunity to interact with my sound by creating my own pick, customized to my own liking.  I can even make a double-pick that strikes the strings twice in one sweep.  My goal is to make musical matter that connects the musician to the instrument and literally “make” my sound and connect that to a song that I write portraying the interaction between the realms of thought and materiality as mentioned in the Gnostic/Neo-Platonic mythologies.

What does the future look like for innovators of sound?  I plan to explore the lives of experimental guitar artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Jack White, Jerry Garcia and more in discovering how they “made” their unique sound using things.  Things play such a vital role in the formulation of a unique sound, and when thing are now easier than ever to create, I wish to capitalize on my ability to design and print specific picks for specific sounds that I am looking for.  When I first posted a picture of my first 3D printed pick on a social media site, I immediately had people interested in custom designed guitar picks.  I think the future will boom with people getting creative and making new instruments and instrument accessories to really mold their sound.

I will study the formation of new pedals and guitar effects.  The connection that artist such as “The Edge” from U2 had with their sound and new effects technology is something that I wish to explore and learn from.  “Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix’s innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form.” (http://www.jimihendrix.com/us/jimi) Jimi Hendrix used things that people never thought of using before to create his unique sound.

I wish to inspire people to create more music and to branch and see how they can make innovative things that give music new life and a new way to play. Musician’s such as the band Mutemath have created interesting new instruments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zdtzk5mYf4) that make sounds like no other. When seeing this instrument played live, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of what kinds of sounds we can make and create new soundscapes with. “Music soundscapes can also be generated by automated software methods, such as the experimental TAPESTREA application, a framework for sound design and soundscape composition, and others” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscape)

While there are many ways to create sounds in a digital audio workspace (DAW), I wish to focus on the creation of analog or physical objects that create unique sound. There is much going on in the digital realm, but I feel a material connection to music is irreplaceable in an age of digitalizing everything. I feel this creation of my own sound will inspire other to also hone their sound and think out of the box. I will make a presentation at the end of the quarter of a song in which I will incorporate the meaning of matter and thought. The digital realm is very analogous to the masculine principle of thought and then is brought into actualization by the feminine principle of material form.

The song that I create will address the issues that we have had with the mythological Artificer or “maker of things” that is referenced by Plato in Timaeus. In the Gnostic neo-platonic tradition, there was first a “Pleroma” or fullness that all consciousness came from. Out of the pleroma came the “Un-begotten Father” (see Gospel of Sophia) and the Divine Mother aka Sophia (personified Greek word for wisdom). Sophia created the Demiurge out of matter and since he was made out of matter, he only saw matter and thought himself to be the only god and creator. He then created the physical world and seemed to trap the souls of mankind into material bodies. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually carrying out the will of his mother, Sophia, by creating the physical world and the souls of man were only trapped by their own ignorance of their true origins.