This practice-based research, which includes a written thesis and a portfolio of creative practice,
represents the interdisciplinary exploration of co-composition between natural and artificial matter as
otherworldly phenomena. Accelerated by the application of recent technologies to control natural
materials, matter has become merged between nature and artefacts, offering new potentials, where the
boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. This thesis presents a series of complementing sound
art works, including transition [systemic], transition [characteristic], and moment, which were
devised through co-composing towards a creative outcome that combines sonic and visual elements
by integrating natural and artificial matter as co-authors and co-makers within the creative process to
generate multiple perspectives. Raising questions of the boundary between nature and artificiality, it
aims to consider a new methodology for sound art in the human-dominated, Anthropocene epoch.
This research employs natural elements and processes to engage with sonic and visual
anthropomorphism. It is focused on generative processes in the organisation of matter, here analysed
and harnessed for sound expression, using acoustic phenomena including the inaudible range that can
be perceived through matter. Through a laboratory-based study made in collaboration with scientists,
three ‘life-like’ features of the generative processes of materials are discussed: 1) fusion and division,
2) network formation, and 3) pulse and rhythm. The practice explores these features to develop a new
methodology of authorship and making, examining the following two questions. How can life-like
behaviours of matter be portrayed through sonic and visual modes of expression? And in what ways
might the expression of life-like behaviours be grasped by human perception?
In conclusion, by integrating the agency of matter into the compositional processes, life-like features – as described by
current theories in art, design, science, and philosophy –
are made apparent
