MP3 compression artefacts as creative material

This creative research project is concerned with exploring the production and properties of MP3 data compression artefacts and effects, categorising them in a taxonomy, and arranging those artefacts for the creation of musical works. The thesis consists of music and text. The music is arranged into a portfolio of six compositions and four interludes that explore the creative potential of compression artefacts. The text provides artistic contexts, perceptual coding concepts, the methodology used for creating artefacts, a taxonomy of compression artefacts, techniques used for arranging the music, and commentaries on the pieces of music themselves. Artefacts have been produced by encoding noise colours and transient signals with MP3 codecs set to low bitrates and low sample rates. Signals have been run through the encode- decode cycle multiple times, a process called cascading, in order to amplify properties further and make them easier to analyse and compose with. A taxonomy has been organised, acting as a repository for primary and secondary research, and to act as a guide for re/creating artefacts, whether that be for creative means or otherwise. The taxonomy gives names of artefacts, descriptions of them, and explanations as to how they are created. Artefacts act as the raw material for composing music, and using arrangement and processing techniques inspired by a variety of electronic and mid-century composers, works have been constructed in an electroacoustic style. Arrangement and processing techniques include - but are not limited to - clusters, streams, time-stretching, and pitch-shifting. The use of compression artefacts as the sonic material in these musical works places the project within an artistic practice that uses breakages and failure as the aesthetic focus of a work. The project explores the limitations of compression technologies, and approaches media and formats that are normally considered as a means of transmitting or archiving sound as a means of generating it too.