Feedback Reloaded

Artistic Lecture mit Otto Wanke

In my artistic lecture, we will further explore the role of feedback in dynamic systems, its fundamental presence in audio processing, and its compositional potential across different fields, including electroacoustic music, video, and 3Dgraphics. As cybernetician Norbert Wiener stated, “Feedback is the method of controlling a system by reinserting into it the results of its past performance.” In this sense, we will examine how feedback functions as a responsive mechanism in control structures — where sound actively shapes its own trajectory, creating evolving sonic forms. We will also turn our attention to performance, focusing on feedback as an instrument in itself. This includes an exploration of no-input mixing within the Eurorack system, as well as feedback’s role as a tool in nonlinear synthesis. Through this, we uncover a space where sound generates and modulates itself, where instability becomes a creative force, and where emergent sonic structures arise from the delicate interplay of control and chaos.

Otto Wanke (*1989) is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. His work combines instrumental writing with electronics as well as with interactive media or visual art. He studied electroacoustic and instrumental composition at the mdw and MUK with Karlheinz Essl and Wolfgang Liebhart. He completed his doctorate also at the mdw with Gesine Schröder and Martin Supper. Since 2020 he teaches electroacoustic composition at the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno. He has worked with ensembles and orchestras including PHACE, OENM, Black Pencil Ensemble, Grafenegg Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie or SOV Symphony Orchestra Vorarlberg. His works have been premiered at Wien Modern, Acht Brücken and Carinthian Summer, and he has collaborated with institutions such as the National Opera in Warsaw and the ZKM in Karlsruhe.