This artistic research thesis investigates how music performance with electronic
music devices, such as the loudspeaker, electric guitar, and amplifier
connects to ideas of the sacred. It combines theories from anthropology,
religious studies, musicology, and the history of technology with my artistic
practice as a composer.
In my research, I introduce a new concept of Symbolic Sound-Producing
Gestures, inspired by composer Mauricio Kagel's instrumental theater. This
concept serves as a compositional tool for shaping symbolic meanings that
emerge from the physical interaction between performers and instruments.
C. G. Jung's symbolic framework and Antonin Artaud's vision of theatrical
gestures as powerful symbolic forces guided my exploration of sacred
symbolism in the instruments, sounds, and expanded techniques used in my
works.
I draw on sociologist Émile Durkheim's sacred/profane dichotomy, Erik
Davis's book Techgnosis, and consumer researcher Russell W. Belk's theory
of Sacred Consumption to examine the paradoxical entanglement of the
sacred and the profane in contemporary consumer culture. In this context,
although electronic music devices are inseparable from the profane world
of tools and consumption objects, they remain rich in sacred associations
because of their long history and diverse cultural manifestations. Moreover,
through their capacity to channel vast amounts of energy, they can evoke
the emotional intensity of the numinous: awe, dread, and mystery.
I analyze three of my artistic works that exemplify how the staging
and use of electronic music devices in music performance can articulate the
entanglement of the sacred and the profane. These artistic processes ultimately
led me to the concept I call Grotesque Numinosity: an aesthetic lens
that embraces both awe and absurdity, finding intense experiences where
the sacred and the profane fuse in the raw energy of electronic sound.