3D Electromagnetic Field Topology for Sound Manipulation

This chapter discusses the design of an audio instrument in which sound is transformed via an electromagnetic field. The instrument treats the electromagnetic field as an active performative medium rather than a neutral carrier, where distance, velocity, and orientation replace static controls such as knobs and faders.

Audio is fed into a modified induction loop, converted into an electromagnetic field, and captured into the audio domain using a pickup. Small changes in the pickup's position and orientation produce significant transformations, including tremolo, filtering, dropouts, saturation, harmonics, and wavefolding like artefacts. These nonlinear, amplitude and frequency dependent behaviours are unpredictable, creating a responsive yet unstable system.

The instrument supports signal driven configurations and no input feedback, with custom software providing dynamics control and a hands-free interface. The pickup functions as a field reading device, letting the performer navigate zones of varying strength, nulls, and directional sensitivity in three dimensions.

The work situates electromagnetic field exploration as a sound shaping process and immersive performance paradigm. Mapping field-derived dynamics into spatial rendering via Higher Order Ambisonics proposes a spatial music practice grounded in embodied navigation of an invisible physical medium.