Composing the Inhuman: Material Agencies and Sonic Exploration

This PhD investigates music composition as a site of material transformation, challenging traditional models of creative agency through a philosophical and practice-based exploration of sonic materiality. Departing from anthropocentric frameworks that position the composer as autonomous subject, the research develops a methodology that treats composition as an experimental interface between human and inhuman forces.

Drawing on the philosophical approaches of Gilles Deleuze, Nick Land, Ray Brassier, and François Laruelle, the research moves beyond new materialism’s vitalist orientation toward a more rigorous engagement with the inhuman dimensions of sonic creation. By suspending conventional notions of subjectivity and creativity, the research explores composition as a process of material reconfiguration that exceeds human intentionality.

The practice-based component comprises two complementary compositional investigations. The first explores computational systems as sites of material agency, emphasizing technological glitches, algorithmic unpredictability, and the dissolution of human control. The second minimizes technological mediation to trace more subtle material flows and transformations in acoustic environments.

Methodologically, the research employs the “Processual Sonic Repository” (PSR)—a dynamic digital documentation system that captures the emergent qualities of compositional processes.