1. Introduction
Since the early twenty-first century, sound art and its extension into experimental luthiery have gained growing visibility, reconfigured as modes of expression that transcend audiovisual aesthetic practices, foregrounding their cultural, political and epistemological dimensions. In Latin America, this transformation has emerged as a response to the region’s colonial legacy, the redefinition of local knowledge systems and critical engagements with the global canon of music and art. The multilayered relationship that sound maintains with space, the body, community and memory has become a driving force shaping artistic production and modes of social intervention.Footnote 1 Within this context, experimental instrument making has moved beyond a merely formal or aesthetic pursuit to become a vehicle for cultural resistance, sonic memory and alternative knowledge production. These practices diverge from traditional notions of luthiery, emphasising alternative modes of sound production that challenge the boundaries of audio perception, prioritise locally rooted materials, foster collective creation and are shaped within conceptual frameworks. From this perspective, the instrument ceases to function solely as a sound-producing device and instead becomes an artistic medium that articulates the questions of how, when and whose voice is heard.
On the other hand, instruments have generally been given limited attention in musicology and art history literature despite being technically ‘sound design’ tools. However, since the twentieth century, the approach to instruments as ‘sound objects’ beyond being mere tools for music production has gained increasing importance. In this context, DeVale’s (Reference DeVale1990) concept of ‘the science of sound instruments’ enables a comprehensive assessment encompassing sound art and experimental instrument making from an interdisciplinary and pluralistic perspective; it also allows for the conceptualisation of a hybrid field ranging from sound objects to experimental instruments and from sound installations to sound sculptures (Turan, Reference Turan2024: 273–287; Reference Turan2024a: 365).
The fundamental difference between traditional instrument making and sound installations lies in their functionality and their distinct temporal and spatial interpretations. However, this distinction becomes increasingly permeable and ambiguous in hybrid fields such as experimental instruments and sound installations. At this point, what is decisive is the artists’ approach to the material and the methods they employ. Conventional or experimental instruments are generally integrated into a performance practice within the framework of the artist’s original design, whereas in sound installations, this relationship evolves into a more libertarian structure.Footnote 2 However, in both types, there is a practice of transmission/performance through which the artist conveys their inner or conceptual world via an instrument.
In the context of contemporary art, a traditional instrument can sometimes be considered a sound installation or sound sculpture placed in a space owing to its volume and plasticity. As this study highlights, this allows for the auditory communication that occurs when each sound installation or sound instrument meets the audience to be examined within the framework of ‘acoustemology’. The common ground in this article, which provides examples from regions of Latin America with different social, cultural and geographical contexts, is this approach that focuses on libertarian, creative and localised forms of production linked to experimental and artistic production.
Viewed through the lens of experimental luthiery, Feld’s (Reference Feld and Basso1996) concept of ‘acoustemology’ provides a compelling theoretical framework for articulating this mode of practice. For Feld, sound is not merely a physical phenomenon perceived through hearing; it is a constitutive element of ‘knowing through the auditory’ and of the individual’s spatial and social positioning (Feld, Reference Feld and Basso1996: 97). Within the Latin American context, such an auditory mode of knowing is deeply entangled with colonial politics of silencing, environmental exploitation and cultural marginalisation. Consequently, sound art and experimental luthiery practices respond – through sound itself – to the fragile memories, unspeakable traumas and modalities of resistance that characterise postcolonial geographies such as Latin America. Creative sound-making practices in the region also emerge as critical and tangible interventions against historical injustices.
On the other hand, another point that should not be overlooked is that experimental and hybrid instrument making is still seen as a threat by conservative structures in many traditional instrument-making institutions, in Latin America today and in the centre and periphery. For example, since the twentieth century, innovative and unconventional practices such as Luigi Russolo’s Intonarumori (1930) or the Baschet Brothers’ Sonorous Structures (1963) have often been excluded or ignored in mainstream instrument-making discourse. Such works have found greater acceptance and visibility in the field of contemporary art, which has strengthened and legitimised production in this direction.
As a consequence, alternative practices involving sound objects and experimental instruments are largely recognised and theorised within interdisciplinary frameworks, particularly in visual and plastic arts. This field provides fertile ground for the proliferation and legitimisation of experimental approaches.Footnote 3
This study examines how experimental instrument-making practices extend beyond the mere production of novel timbres or sonic possibilities, instead enabling transformations in modes of hearing, redefining subjectivity and the emergence of new models of collective artistic organisation. Viewed through the lens of sound art, experimental instruments transcend their role as sound-producing devices and emerge as multilayered structures imbued with political, aesthetic and epistemological significance.Footnote 4 In this context, experimental practices shaped by concepts such as gambioluthieria, the ‘conceptual luthiery’ approach, postcolonial sonic aesthetics and collective acoustic memory represent formal innovations and interventions into knowledge systems, social memory and cultural belonging.
Some of the most prominent and contemporary examples that embody this approach within the Latin American context can be identified as follows: Smetak’s Plásticas Sonoras instruments present sound not merely as an auditory phenomenon but as part of a holistic experience shaped by ritual, intuition and the body.Footnote 5 This perspective was transformed into a performative, geometric and collective language within the ensemble Uakti, founded by Guimarães. Sukorski’s hybrid instruments, such as Gran Corda and Baixo Tótem, conceptualise sound at the intersection of electromagnetic and physical vibrations, cultivating an aesthetic of conceptual sound engineering. Obici’s conceptualisation of gambioluthieria is repositioned and updated within a conceptual and technological framework. One of the most recent developments is found in Candiani’s feminist approach, where her audiovisual installations and experimental instruments transform the invisibility of women’s labour into a corporeal sonic aesthetic through mechanical systems. On the other hand, Cardiani’s artistic instrument-making work exemplifies the point reached by the field in the twenty-first century from an interdisciplinary perspective and its repositioning within an extraordinary sequence.
This study approaches experimental instrument making in Latin America not merely as an aesthetic innovation but as a gestural act centred on politics and communication. Drawing on Rancière’s (Reference Rancière2007) notion of the distribution of the sensible, sound is conceptualised here as that which is heard and an aesthetic-political field of intervention capable of rendering the suppressed, the inaudible and collective desires audible. Latin American artists who create instruments from found objects and discarded materials, design wearable sonic devices or map political traumas through auditory means are constructing a form of ‘postcolonial acoustemology’. Within this framework of ‘sound design’, the ear is no longer simply an organ of hearing but becomes a tool and symbol of resistance. This study also examines experimental instruments as epistemological devices that generate new sounds, reshape listening practices, foster alternative forms of subjectivity and facilitate collective modes of organisation. From the perspective of sound art, this investigation focuses on the concepts of conceptual luthiery, postcolonial sonic aesthetics and the production of collective acoustic memory. It has deepened through examples that embody these perspectives in the Latin American context.
This study focuses on selected artists who exemplify this tendency within Latin America, with particular attention to Smetak and those who have continued his legacy, most notably Guimarães and the ensemble Uakti, as well as key figures representing subsequent generations, such as Orellana, Sukorski and Candiani. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that due to the study’s scope and limitations, several other significant contributors to experimental luthiery and sound art in the region are not examined in detail.Footnote 6
2. Background
Music and sound practices have historically played a fundamental role not merely as forms of artistic expression but as mechanisms through which social relations are constructed, identities are formed and cultural memory is transmitted. Across history, such practices have sustained collective experiences while enabling social transformation processes (Ong, Reference Ong1967; Raynor, Reference Raynor1976; Attali, Reference Attali1985; Small, Reference Small1998; Turino, Reference Turino2008; Drott, Reference Drott2011). Viewed from this perspective, investigating when, where, by whom and for what purposes instruments are produced – as well as how they are played and who listens to them – helps uncover aesthetic preferences alongside the social structures and power relations that shape them (Weber, Reference Weber1958; Ong, Reference Ong1967; Attali, Reference Attali1985; Habermas, Reference Habermas1988; Turley, Reference Turley2001; Drott, Reference Drott2011). However, in the historiography of music and art, the processes of instrument making and the cultural dimensions of material selection are frequently overlooked (Alaica et al., Reference Alaica, González La Rosa, Yépez Álvarez and Jennings2022: 2–3). However, these components are not merely technical choices; they are deeply embedded in the social configurations, aesthetic paradigms and ideological orientations of their time.
In Latin America, experiences related to sound and musical practices possess a deep and multilayered history, rooted in a cultural memory that extends far into the past. Archaeological evidence suggests that sound production, from its earliest instances, functioned not merely as an auditory activity but as a fundamental component in the reproduction of collective rituals and social order. For example, aerophones made from animal bones, discovered in the La Real necropolis in southern Peru and dated to AD 600–850, illustrate the central role of musical participation in community life during the Middle Horizon period (Alaica et al., Reference Alaica, González La Rosa, Yépez Álvarez and Jennings2022: 2). Initially produced collectively in connection with ritual feasting, these instruments later became associated with individual craftsmanship, marking a shift that also reflected aesthetic and class-based distinctions (Alaica et al., Reference Alaica, González La Rosa, Yépez Álvarez and Jennings2022: 7). Another notable example of ancient sonic technologies from the Andean region is the Peruvian ceramic water whistle. These instruments were not merely ritualistic tools but multifunctional acoustic devices that facilitated the circulation of sound between body, nature and spiritual systems (Ransom, Reference Ransom1998: 2–4).
The Latin American region, rich in such examples, constitutes a vibrant cultural terrain in which this approach to sound has historically diversified and evolved. These historical instances also offer genealogical resonance with contemporary practices of ‘participatory/collective’ luthiery found in today’s experimental instrument making.Footnote 7 Thus, the relationship between sound, the object and the body carries sonic significance while simultaneously embodying social, ritualistic and cultural meaning.
Particularly following the French Revolution, while art institutions in Europe were structured as cultural carriers of the modern nation-state, artistic production in Latin America was often shaped by postcolonial epistemological ruptures and displaced modes of perception (López, Reference López2014). The core issue here is that the historical character embedded in art as a form of modern temporality cannot be reduced to the explanatory frameworks developed by theorists of modernity, which centre on the rationalised formation of art as a cultural institution within modern societies. On the contrary, the emergence of new literary, intellectual and artistic orders in Latin America – formed in tension with colonial regimes of representation – must be considered within a much broader and politically charged context. Indeed, the profound social and political transformations of the nineteenth century fundamentally reshaped our modes of aesthetic experience and conceptions of art (López, Reference López2014: 295).
In this context, experimental instrument making can be understood not merely as a site of formal innovation or technological experimentation but as part of an alternative cultural and epistemological reconstruction developed in response to the centralising aesthetic norms and rational-acoustic regimes of modernity. Such practices aim to transform the material conditions of perception and intervene – through sound and object – into the postcolonial subject’s pursuit of cultural autonomy. This historical framework also provides a meaningful backdrop for the emergence of interdisciplinary artistic sound practices in contemporary Latin America, alongside the intertwined development of experimental instrument making.
However, from the second half of the twentieth century onwards, a reaction began to emerge against the established musical canon and the virtuosity-based performance paradigm. Led by artists, such as Duchamp, Cage, Smetak and Davies, alternative luthiery practices developed that embraced bricolage, do-it-yourself (DIY)Footnote 8 approaches and the use of found or repurposed objects. These practices foregrounded material recycling, collective performance and improvisation, offering a counterpoint to dominant traditions in instrument making and musical execution.
On the one hand, this approach is seen as an extension of the gambiarra culture – rooted in improvised and creative problem-solving – widely practised in Latin America, particularly in Brazil. It constitutes a critique of technology based on local materials and knowledge systems. The concept of gambioluthieria (a portmanteau of gambiarra and luthieria), as defined by Obici (2014: 82; Reference Obici2017: 87), embodies this perspective not simply as a technical or formal deviation but as a form of intervention operating at cultural, political and aesthetic levels.Footnote 9
One of the most compelling examples of postcolonial transformation in Latin America is found in the compositions and instrument designs of Orellana. His work resonates deeply with Guatemala’s postcolonial historical context, articulating an ‘acoustic fabric’ that reflects the oppression of Indigenous populations and the traumas induced by civil war (AS/COA, 2021: 3). This sensibility has had a formative influence on younger generations of Latin American composers, giving rise to a new orientation described as ‘social-sound aesthetics’ – a sonic practice inspired by social structures and historical experience (Gonzalez and Leme, Reference Gonzalez and Leme2021; Torún, Reference Torúnn.d.). Orellana’s radical approach merges local techniques with avant-garde sensibilities, positioning him not merely as an experimental composer but as a key figure in the transmission of acoustic memory and cultural resistance (Wayne, Reference Wayne2021).
These practices correspond to what Rancière (Reference Rancière2007: 14) describes as a new arithmetic of the sensible – a process concerned with questions of what can be heard and by whom. Within this framework, experimental instrument making in Latin America becomes an auditory expression of the pursuit of cultural autonomy. Rancière’s distinction between ‘real equality’ and ‘false equality’ further underscores the sociopolitical significance of these alternative regimes of perception (Rancière, Reference Rancière2007: 91), laying the groundwork for their construction as collective sound experiences. From this perspective, experimental luthiery developed in postcolonial contexts is not confined to the production of new sounds; it also contributes to the construction of alternative epistemologies through its choices of material, methods of fabrication and embedded knowledge systems. Consequently, the question of how and by whom sound is produced emerges not merely as an artistic decision but as a political and epistemological problem. In this regard, contemporary approaches that may be termed ‘postcolonial luthiery’Footnote 10 invite a rethinking of instrument making not simply as a functional or aesthetic concern but as a multilayered domain in which knowledge production and cultural representation are reconfigured.
3. Postcolonial luthiery: Material, method, epistemology
In Latin America, experimental instrument making has frequently served artists as a form of conceptual cultural strategy, rather than merely pursuing technical or technological innovation. It becomes evident that experimental luthiery operates not solely through artisanal skill but is shaped by a conceptual foundation encompassing political intuition, ritual knowledge and material memory. In a postcolonial context, instrument making extends beyond the physical act of fabrication to constitute a multilayered expressive field in which practices of knowledge, communication, sonic epistemologies and modes of perception are fundamentally reconfigured.
These transformative approaches encompass anti-professional modes of production shaped through bricolage-based artistic practices – characterised by provisional and improvised solutions, the refunctionalisation of found objects, the use of recycled materials and aesthetics rooted in improvisation. However, such tendencies in experimental luthiery should not be understood solely as acts of resistance against dominant conventional norms. Instead, they can also be read as critical interventions that actively reshape audiovisual perceptual frameworks and contribute to the transformation of entrenched cultural schemas and codes.
Materials frequently used in such production practices, such as PVC pipes, oil cans, glass sheets and scrap metals, represent economic necessity and the aesthetic manifestation of postcolonial technological inequalities and exclusions. These objects reflect the legacy of colonial exploitation, sanctions and what Turan (Reference Turan2024: 232) terms ‘technological inequality’ and ‘technological exclusion’. In this context, the instrument ceases to function merely as a sound object and instead becomes a social symbol.
Moreover, it is the formal design of an instrument that generates knowledge and the sociocultural, economic and historical context in which it is produced. In this sense, the instrument transcends its role as a sound-producing device. Instead, it becomes a form of media – a vehicle of mass communication. This transformation raises questions, such as by whom, where, with what materials and within which networks of social relations an instrument becomes the centre of sonic aesthetics and the production of meaning.
This approach aligns with Kittler’s (Reference Kittler1999) argument that technological tools should not be understood merely as functional devices but as historically, culturally and ideologically encoded structures. In this respect, it reinforces postmodern understandings of luthiery that regard instruments as cultural forms carrying social relations and discourses. McLuhan’s (Reference McLuhan1994: 7) assertion that ‘the medium is the message’ proposes that technological environments shape society independently of the content they convey, a view succinctly echoed by Culkin (Reference Culkin1967: 70) in his claim that ‘we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us’. Similarly, Habermas (Reference Habermas and Habermas1970: 81) contends that in modern societies, science and technology have ceased to function as neutral knowledge producers and have instead become instruments that generate ideological legitimacy under the guise of neutrality. For him, ostensibly technical forms of communication replace public reason, legitimising power relations through the language of technical rationality. Viewed through this conceptual lens, contemporary or conceptual instrument design may be understood not as a matter of acoustic efficiency but as a material extension of the relations constructed between the body, knowledge, aesthetics and authority.
In regions, such as Latin America – shaped since their so-called discovery by colonialism, regime changes, political upheavals, revolutions and social struggles – the musical instrument has come to represent not merely a form with visual plasticity but also a vehicle for political discourse and symbolism. In other words, these instruments are neither created solely for playability nor designed exclusively as visual or sculptural objects; rather, they are structures positioned between function and meaning, understood as epistemic apparatus.
In parallel with these approaches, postcolonial luthiery in Latin America has largely taken shape as an alternative mode of artistic knowledge production along three key dimensions:
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(1) Material-based knowledge: Found objects, recycled or locally sourced materials are employed not merely for sound production but as elements imbued with cultural and epistemic meaning.
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(2) Community-based production: Instrument making is redefined as a social practice rooted in collective creation and exchange processes, moving beyond individual craftsmanship.
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(3) Conceptuality: Instruments are positioned not solely as tools for generating sound but as conceptual objects embedded with symbolic, political and ritual significance. In this study, the artists and works selected to exemplify this theoretical framework will be analysed in accordance with these core criteria.
4. Walter Smetak and Piásticas Sonoras
One of the most striking examples of what may be described as ‘conceptual instrument design’ in Latin America is the work of Smetak (1913–1984), who emerged in the second half of the twentieth century as a foundational figure in both the historical and conceptual development of experimental instrument making in Brazil. Having emigrated from Switzerland to Brazil in 1937, Smetak – formally trained as a cellist – performed with various orchestras in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo but conducted most of his artistic work in Salvador da Bahia. He can be described as an innovative figure in music and a philosopher, alchemist, educator and ‘sonic metaphysician’ (Gerlach, Reference Gerlach2019: 15).
Smetak’s most well-known body of work is his Plásticas Sonoras – an instrumentarium comprising approximately 150 experimental instruments or sound sculptures. Developed from the 1960s onwards in a studio he established at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Smetak’s instruments are understood not primarily through their functionality but through their plastic qualities, visual forms and connections to symbolic and ritual contexts. The Plásticas Sonoras series presents a distinctive approach, in which the instrument is conceived not merely as a sound-producing device but as a space for intellectual, spiritual and ontological integration (Gerlach, Reference Gerlach2019; Obici, Reference Obici2014; Scarassatti, Reference Scarassatti2008).
The theatrical structures Smetak developed – particularly within his collective productions – demonstrate the centrality of the concept of ‘play’ in his artistic practice. Within this framework, Cretino, which functions both as a sound instrument/toy and as a performative object, offers a compelling example of his ludic approach. Composed of two trumpet mouthpieces attached to a transparent hose and a funnel, the design can be played either individually or collectively. Interwoven with humour and irony, this instrument engages in a critical interplay with conventional traditions of instrument making and performance practices. Cretino generates a multilayered performance process that extends beyond sound production to include bodily movement, visual attention and conceptual association. In this way, Smetak’s conception of the instrument emerges as an approach that structures experience across both physical and conceptual dimensions.Footnote 11
Smetak pursued conceptual sound sculptures and experimental instruments to expand their functionality, conceptual depth and performance practices. In doing so, he became a singular figure within both twentieth-century avant-garde music movements and contemporary art. His creations blurred the boundaries between sound, music and the visual arts, establishing an interdisciplinary field of artistic production. For Smetak, instrument design represented more than technical mastery; it embodied a creative and critical stance against conventional luthiery norms. His approach to experimental luthiery transcended tonality-based musical epistemologies, instead moving towards an alternative sonic philosophy informed by Eastern musical traditions and esoteric thought. His instruments, shaped by natural forms, found objects, xenharmonic systems and performance techniques open to randomness, offer what may be described as a ritual-sonic continuum (Scarassatti, Reference Scarassatti and Gerlach2019; Gerlach, Reference Gerlach2019; Obici, Reference Obici2014; Turan, Reference Turan2024).Footnote 12
Smetak’s conceptual work, Ronda, draws inspiration from Helena Blavatsky’s theosophical writings, reflecting themes of nature’s evolutionary cycles and the mystical dynamism of existence through its design (see Figure 1). Comprising two gourds, this kinetic instrument features a rotating axis equipped with stringed discs, evoking the structure of an hourglass and symbolising circularity. Its form, reminiscent of the infinity symbol, gestures towards the continuity of time and the cyclical motion of human emotions. Ronda also bears structural similarities to instruments, such as the vielle à roue, which generate sound through circular motion (Scarassatti, Reference Scarassatti and Gerlach2019: 44).
Smetak, Ronda, (1967/2017) photo by Albrecht Hotz (Scarassatti, Reference Scarassatti and Gerlach2019: 45).
Both Cage and Smetak occupy a unique place in the history of experimental music, not merely as creators of novel sounds and timbres but as pedagogical figures who fostered new modes of thinking. Cage’s mid-twentieth-century American music practice – centred on silence, chance and performative awareness – provoked a cognitive transformation among his students by challenging dogmatic compositional paradigms (Revill, Reference Revill1992; Maral, Reference Maral2010; Fırıncıoğlu, Reference Fırıncıoğlu2012). Both artists served as catalysts for transformation in experimental music education. In Smetak’s pedagogical and aesthetic framework, performers and students assume a multilayered creative responsibility that extends beyond the act of playing a musical piece: they are invited to think through the instrument, to reimagine space sonically and to render the relationship between ritual and fabrication into a performative act.
5. Objetos Musicais collection: Experimental luthiery and the legacy of Smetak
Objetos Musicais is a sonic collection comprising 13 works created by artists – mainly from Latin America, alongside three from Switzerland – that sit at the intersection of experimental instrument making, the visual arts and contemporary music practices. These works directly reference Smetak’s visionary approach and are conceptually grounded in two of his seminal albums, Smetak (1974) and Interregno (1980), which encapsulate his musical poetics (Buh Records, Reference Records2021). Many contributing artists reinterpret the aesthetic sensibilities found in Smetak’s Plásticas Sonoras. Rather than treating instruments solely as tools for sound production, these works approach them as cultural objects entangled with ritual, the body, materiality and knowledge production.Footnote 13
The Objetos Musicais project thus illustrates how Smetak’s experimental luthiery practice is being reimagined and transformed by contemporary Latin American artists. The artists included in the collection distinguish themselves through diverse approaches to experimental instrument making and sound art.Footnote 14 These artists combine traditional and contemporary sound production techniques from various geographies, offering original approaches that expand the boundaries of experimental luthiery. Rather than representing rigidly distinct categories, these trajectories are often intricately interwoven, giving rise to new auditory possibilities. Collectives, such as those represented in Objetos Musicais, exemplify an emerging interdisciplinary field of research and creative practice.Footnote 15
Within this framework, Objetos Musicais does more than evoke the legacy of Smetak; it offers artists a means to recontextualise his practice within contemporary artistic frameworks. The collection points to an interdisciplinary field of creation shaped by the convergence of experimental luthiery, sound art, bricolage, gambiarra culture and DIY aesthetics (Buh Records, Reference Records2021).
From Attali’s (Reference Attali1985) perspective, which explores the relationships between music, anarchy, noise and power, Objetos Musicais can be interpreted as a historical homage and a space of sonic political movement. In a postcolonial geography, such as Latin America, shaped by cultural hybridity and social conflict, the emergence of such aesthetic-political trajectories is hardly surprising; instead, it gains profound significance when understood in light of the deep relationship between artistic production and its historical and cultural context.
6. Marco Antônio guimarães and Uakti: Sonic continuum
Emerging in the 1980s with an expanding audience across Latin America, UaktiFootnote 16 became known for abandoning conventional instruments in favour of experimental ones constructed by the group itself, drawing heavily on the DIY aesthetic in both studio recordings and live performances. This approach filled a significant gap in Brazil’s instrumental folk music, film scoring and minimalism-oriented experimental music scenes. Aesthetically, Uakti initially embraced a sensorial and ritualistic orientation, inspired by Smetak’s legacy and his notion of the sonic continuum. However, by the late 1990s, the ensemble gradually shifted towards instrumental adaptations of classical works and Brazilian popular music, partially distancing itself from its earlier, more radical experimental stance.Footnote 17 Nonetheless, the group’s continued and consistent use of self-made experimental instruments in albums and concerts significantly increased public recognition of experimental instrument making and performance in Brazil. In this way, Uakti functioned as a musical ensemble and a cultural vehicle that helped embed experimental luthiery within the broader sphere of collective memory.
Uakti’s music is grounded in a holistic artistic approach that emphasises the visual, ritualistic and conceptual dimensions of instruments. This multilayered structure can be understood as a popular continuation of the theoretical and intuitive legacy inherited from Smetak – particularly through the work of Guimarães. A former student of Smetak, Guimarães carried forward the experimental instrument-making tradition in Brazil and institutionalised it by developing a systematic, structural and performative practice. Since its inception, Uakti has developed a distinctive musical language through the design of self-invented instruments, achieving significant influence within the Brazilian music scene and across Latin America and through various international collaborations.
Among the experimental instruments developed by Uakti are original constructions made from PVC pipes, glass surfaces, metal and wooden boxes, found objects and recycled materials. These instruments form part of an instrumentarium that distinguishes itself through its visual and spatial performance potential. Over time, however, this approach evolved into a more structured, refined and aesthetically gentrified design language. Nonetheless, this transformation did not negate the unconventional character or experimental nature of Uakti’s instruments. On the contrary, these instruments maintained their aesthetic and conceptual originality, continuing to play a central role in the group’s creative practice.
Among the instruments employed by Uakti is the Torre Footnote 18 , composed of strings mounted onto a large PVC tube and performed by two musicians – one rotating the tube while the other bows the strings. This configuration regulates both the direction and rhythm of sound through movement (Uakti, 2013). Similarly, the Trilobita Footnote 19 consists of drumheads stretched over PVC pipes. Played face-to-face by two performers, it produces a ‘fast/continuous, percussive, and resonant sonic texture’ (Uakti, 2009). Such inventive designs transform sound production into an acoustic, kinetic, choreographic and spatial experience (Gerlach, Reference Gerlach2017: 49). In these constructions, Guimarães combines mathematical structure with artisanal skill – an approach that may be described, in Obici’s (Reference Obici2014: 92) terms, as a ‘technical-cognitive resonance system’. As with Smetak’s instruments, those developed by Uakti defy conventional classifications of instrumentality in terms of visual form, function and performance technique. For example, the percussion instrument they named Trilobyte is a multipart module that serves both rhythmic and melodic functions.
Uakti’s music is distinguished by its experimental instrument design and the creation of a unique ‘cultural sonic space’ mediated through these instruments. From a postcolonial perspective, Guimarães’s contribution lies in his aesthetic, conceptual and performative reconfiguration of the sonic and epistemic system inherited from Smetak. Rather than approaching experimental luthiery solely through intuition, Guimarães proposes a systematic framework that advances a new mode of sound perception.Footnote 20
7. Joaquín Orellana: Útiles sonoros and postcolonial memory
Guatemalan composer Orellana (b. 1930) is considered one of Latin America’s pioneering sound artists, known for his útiles sonoros – a series of experimental instruments that merge the conceptual foundations of traditional marimba with electronic music. The hybrid aesthetic structure he establishes between the visual arts and music is not merely an artistic exploration but rather a form of political resistance (AS/COA, 2021: 13). From a postcolonial and collective memory perspective, Orellana’s instruments offer an acoustic response to Guatemala’s history of colonialism, civil war and political oppression. His endeavour to reconstruct sound transcends technical or aesthetic concerns, functioning as a political discourse that expresses the collective memory of the Guatemalan people. Orellana seeks to articulate a new acoustic narrative within a geopolitically disoriented landscape. In this context, the útiles sonoros function as both an alternative to colonial epistemologies and a platform for reimagining national identity.
In this context, Orellana’s return to the marimba can be understood as an homage to a traditional instrument and an effort to construct an acoustic memory that counters the colonial past in which local cultures were suppressed. Through his multilayered and sculptural arrangements, the sound of the marimba in Orellana’s work does not simply evoke the past but becomes a carrier of future imaginaries.
Moreover, Orellana’s marimba-based instrument designs (see Figure 2), such as Sinusoido Grande (1996) and Imbaluna (1984), radically transform the standardised form of the traditional marimba. Featuring abstract, parabolic and often sculptural configurations, these designs transcend aesthetic choices to critically respond to the established luthiery canon, the conventional codes of instrument making and the colonised acoustic aesthetic.
Orellana, Sinusoido (Orellana, Reference Orellana2021).
This regime allows sound to move beyond representation, becoming a vehicle for sonic resistance. Postcolonial approaches in Latin America, which consider sound an intermediary between trauma and memory (Quijano, Reference Quijano2000; Mignolo, Reference Mignolo2011), offer crucial theoretical frameworks for understanding Orellana’s practice of shaping sound as both a political expression and an embodied experience. Quijano’s (Reference Quijano2000: 556) concept of the epistemic persistence of coloniality helps elucidate how Orellana’s so-called ‘underdeveloped’ or ‘experimental’ instruments construct an alternative mode of knowledge and communication.
From this perspective, Orellana’s experimental luthiery can be viewed as both an artistic practice and an epistemological deconstruction. His work proposes a regime in which sound becomes both a form of knowledge and a domain for redistributing social justice.Footnote 21
Orellana pursued studies in electronic music and sound composition at Argentina’s Instituto Torcuato Di Tella between 1967 and 1968, under a CLAEM fellowship. However, upon returning to Guatemala, he faced severe technological constraints and lacked access to digital sound equipment. This material constraint led him to begin designing his own mechanical and analogue sound devices (AS/COA, 2021: 16).
Orellana’s work represents a distinctive and transformative example of postcolonial artistic production in Latin America. His experimental instruments, which he terms útiles sonoros (sound tools), are not merely technical or aesthetic innovations; they are expressions of postcolonial identity, historical memory and local knowledge systems articulated through sound. Through his sound-based opposition to Western-centric musical epistemologies, Orellana offers a tangible embodiment of what Mignolo (Reference Mignolo2011: 44) describes as epistemic resistance.
Orellana’s experimental luthiery, viewed through the lens of coloniality, constitutes both an alternative to hegemonic knowledge forms of modernity and an intervention in support of the legitimisation of local sonic practices. The re-voicing of memory through the transformation of the marimba does not merely recall the past – it opens up a space for autonomous and critical modes of sensing the future.
Thus, Orellana’s work is not merely a local phenomenon specific to Guatemala; it constitutes a central site of intervention within global postcolonial aesthetic and acoustemological debates. His art is both an aesthetic project and a means of knowledge production, cultural representation and social intervention. It plays a pivotal role in amplifying postcolonial identity struggles, historical memory and local knowledge systems within the Latin American context.
8. Wilson Sukorski: Digital luthiery and Acoustic Cyberforms
Sukorski is a pioneering figure in Brazil’s sound art and electroacoustic music scene, known for merging music technologies with experimental instrument making. In contrast to Smetak’s intuitive and ritualistic approach, Sukorski develops a ‘digital/hybrid luthiery’ practice that operates through digital interfaces, software-based sound engines, machine-assisted systems and AI-controlled mechanisms. Within this framework, Sukorski proposes the concept of Acoustic Cyberforms, which may be associated with post-digital sound aesthetics. His projects integrate MIDI-controlled objects, resonators triggered by mechanical motion and sound surfaces modulated by interactive software, simultaneously engaging with the material and algorithmic dimensions of sound. Under the banner of Luthieria Digital, his work reconfigures traditional instrument making through sensors, Arduino systems and software-driven architectures (Sukorski, Reference Sukorski2025).Footnote 22
One of Sukorski’s most compelling projects, integrating experimental instrument design with performative composition, is Concerto Grosso para Eletrônica e 4 Instrumentos Solistas. Centred on three original instruments, Peixe, Baixo Tótem and Gran Corda, this work reinterprets the Baroque concerto grosso form through contemporary electronic sound Technologies.Footnote 23 The conventional interplay between the orchestra and a small group of soloists (concertino) is here reconfigured as a sound dialogue between analogue and digital systems, as well as experimental solo instruments. Throughout the piece, these two structural domains alternate in dominance, exchange roles and interweave, generating a dynamic tension between acoustic and digital aesthetics (Sukorski, Reference Sukorski2024).
Among the experimental instruments used in the work, Peixe, a fish-shaped instrument with vibrational string systems embedded in its resonant internal cavities, offers a symbolic and figurative design at the visual-sonic level. Its formal aesthetics reveal Sukorski’s conception of instruments not as purely functional objects but as conceptual carriers of meaning.
Baixo Tótem is a bass instrument equipped with vertically positioned resonant tubes and piezoelectric triggers, occupying the stage like a sonic totem (see Figure 3). Due to its structural form and spatial positioning, it functions as a sonic sculpture, creating a striking focal point that engages visually and aurally.
Sukorski, Baixo Tótem (Sukorski, Reference Sukorski2025).
Gran Corda, developed by Sukorski, is a hybrid instrument constructed by stretching a long metal string across a surface, such as a wall, whose vibrations are converted into electrical signals via electromagnetic or piezoelectric sensors. Sensitive to tactile control, Gran Corda responds to physical interactions, including friction, pulling and pressure. During performance, both the electroacoustic parameters of the instrument and its resonant relationship with the surface or environment to which it is fixed are made audible. In doing so, it creates a tangible link between acoustic and digital sound aesthetics.
Concerto Grosso para Eletrônica e 4 Instrumentos Solistas stands as one of the most compelling examples in Sukorski’s oeuvre, where the instrument is redefined beyond a mere tool for performance – it becomes a performative object, an auditory architecture and an epistemological field of inquiry. In this regard, the piece pushes the technical and conceptual boundaries of experimental luthiery in Brazil and engages with the fluidity between acoustic and digital modes of perception as an aesthetic concern.
At the same time, such hybrid instruments operate on what Kittler (Reference Kittler1999: 194) describes as ‘media systems’, possessing epistemological layers wherein instruments function as devices for data processing, control and the reconfiguration of sound experience. Within this framework, Sukorski treats the instrument as a physical and digital sonic object. This approach may be conceived as a form of ‘post-mechanical luthiery’, in which craftsmanship converges with code, material with software and playing with algorithmic response.Footnote 24
From a postcolonial perspective, Sukorski’s practice illustrates how local engineering approaches can evolve into a distinct aesthetic and technical language. His work does not merely explore the sonic potential of materials and systems; it proposes an acoustic engineering language that reconfigures the relationships between hearing, production and movement. In Rancière’s (Reference Rancière2013) terms, what is at stake is not only the emergence of new sounds but the entire network of relations that shapes auditory experience. By approaching experimental instrument making through digital means, Sukorski becomes one of the leading figures representing the digital dimension of this practice in Brazil.Footnote 25
9. Tania Candiani: Sound instruments and the acoustic rendering of women’s labour
Mexican artist Candiani (b. 1974) is a prominent interdisciplinary figure in contemporary Latin American art, whose multilayered practice engages with themes of sound, mechanical apparatuses, language, craftsmanship and gender. Candiani revisits women’s invisible labour through post-industrial machines, situating it both historically and within a sensorial-political framework. This approach signals a feminist sound aesthetic that critically interrogates the relationship between technology and gender. In Candiani’s practice, labour is not merely a historical theme but becomes audible as a bodily trace and rhythmic gesture. Post-industrial labour regimes are thus rearticulated within a visual-auditory context (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020).
Accordingly, Candiani positions sound as an epistemological, labour-based and embodied field of experience. Her installations and instrumental sculptures generate sound and acquire function through their spatial relationships. Artists endow mechanical systems with new meanings through ritualised bodily engagement.Footnote 26
In Five Variations of Phonic Circumstances and a Pause (2014), she dismantled the mechanical components of classical musical instruments and reconfigured them into alternative sonic systems. This intervention operates as a conceptual proposal against conventional instrument design: it not only aestheticises what is ‘audible’ but also destabilises and critiques notions commonly attributed to technology, including functionality, efficiency and ‘usefulness’ (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 18). In this context, the instrument ceases to be merely a musical tool and becomes a structure through which bodily, historical and social relations are rearticulated. The installation interrogates the processes and objects that Candiani describes as ‘phonic circumstances’, examining them through the lens of sound’s production, circulation and representation (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 18).Footnote 27
Zanfona Telar/Hurdy-Gurdy Loom (2015) is a unique experimental instrument developed by Candiani as part of her Zanfona, Cromática installation, in which she explores the intersection of traditional handicraft and sound aesthetics (see Figure 4).Footnote 28 Created in collaboration with a local luthier, this work reimagines an ancient weaving loom as a contemporary interpretation of the fifteenth-century hurdy-gurdy. The crank-driven mechanism, which enables continuous friction-based sound production, and the tonality-shifting pedals serve to acoustically and mechanically revive weaving rituals. As part of the Cromática project, the installation aims to create a sound synthesis of music, synaesthesia and the rhythmic structures inherent in manual labour. The repetitive motions of weaving, spinning and knitting generate rhythms that create a fluid aesthetic, bridging the visual and auditory realms. Drawing on the rich artisanal traditions of the Oaxaca region, Candiani reinterprets these practices through sound (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 17).
Candiani, Zanfona Telar/Hurdy-Gurdy Loom, 2015 (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 17).
Candiani’s String Loom (2018) continues her exploration of transforming weaving looms into sound-producing apparatuses (see Figure 5). In this installation, a traditional loom is preserved in its original structure but modified to incorporate 69 strings arranged in three groups. This configuration creates a complex acoustic architecture that facilitates a transition from weaving to sound production.Footnote 29 Rather than deconstructing the traditional apparatus, Candiani reimagines its physical framework as a spatial sound-generating device. String Loom is defined as a visual-sonic instrument that merges the mechanical language of craft with a multilayered auditory experience (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 8).
Candiani, String Loom, 2018 (Candiani, Reference Candiani2020: 8).
Automated pianos, organs, bell towers, ears, mechanical devices and embroidery machines are transformed in Candiani’s practice into instruments that evoke the bodily, ritualistic and social dimensions of sound. These mechanisms blur the boundaries between scientific knowledge and manual labour and between technology and sound aesthetics. Each variation functions as ‘invention’, extending beyond audiovisual experience and producing conceptually and aesthetically unsettling effects in the viewer.Footnote 30
Candiani’s installations reframe what Cusick (Reference Cusick2008) refers to as ‘the fragile bond between the female body and sound’ through mechanical repetition, rhythmic production and the aestheticisation of noise. Read through a postcolonial and feminist lens, her work embodies the aesthetic-political transformation that Rancière (Reference Rancière2013) describes as the making audible of what was previously unheard. In this context, sound is an aesthetic element and a site of political, class-based and gendered representation.
Candiani’s multilayered production within contemporary Latin American art provides valuable insights into conceptual art practices related to sound art and experimental instrument making by integrating the bodily, social and political dimensions of sound through a feminist perspective.
10. Conclusion
This study demonstrates that experimental instrument making and sound art in Latin America are not merely aesthetic pursuits but forms of political, cultural and epistemological resistance. In the cases examined, the instrument assumes a role beyond its function as a medium of expression; it becomes a structure that carries historical memory, reconstructs local knowledge systems and enables sociopolitical intervention. The works of artists, such as Smetak, Orellana, Guimarães, Sukorski and Candiani, exemplify this transformation through approaches rooted in conceptual instrument design. These practices propose alternative acoustic epistemologies in response to Western-centric artistic norms, technological inequalities and regimes of silence. Experimental luthiery in Latin America has evolved into a space that is artistic and instrumental in fostering social transformation.
Moreover, the shared lineage between Smetak and subsequent generations of artists underscores the cultural continuity of ‘postcolonial luthiery’ practices embedded in Latin America. Contemporary artists, working within a twenty-first-century production paradigm, incorporate new materials and techniques to reimagine cultural memory through conceptual instrument design – an approach that may be framed as ‘post-mechanical luthiery’ or ‘post-craftsmanship’.Footnote 31
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my esteemed PhD supervisor, Prof. Dr H. Alper Maral, a renowned expert in sound art, for his invaluable contributions to the field of instrument making and for his constant support throughout my professional life.
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