Musical Homeostasis v.1

A participatory sound experiment for embodying self-organisation. Each participant sustains one tone, selected from a piano keyboard or tuned continuously with a virtual string, and may change it at any time while listening to the group. Over time, the collective sound may converge toward a shared note, a chord, or another locally negotiated equilibrium.

What this models

This activity treats each participant as an adaptive agent in a shared acoustic environment. There is no conductor and no central plan: each person responds locally to what they hear. The group-level pattern emerges through feedback, adjustment, perturbation, and mutual listening.

v.1 is designed for a co-located group, or for a remote group using a shared audio call with echo cancellation carefully managed. The web page itself does not synchronise participants through a server.

Activity rules

  1. Each participant opens this page on their own device.
  2. Choose a sound source: select a note on the piano keyboard, or tune a virtual string by adjusting its length. The sound will sustain until you change it or stop it.
  3. Listen to the collective sound and change notes whenever you wish.
  4. The aim is not to “win”, but to notice how the group seeks, resists, or redefines equilibrium.
  5. In round two, a new participant enters as a disturbance and the group adapts again.
23% of demo max

Choose and sustain one note

Recommended range: C3-C6, three octaves plus the final C. This is wide enough to form unisons, octaves, thirds, fifths, and dense clusters, while staying manageable for group listening. ?

Current note silent -
statusnot started
roleparticipant
changes0
time on sound0s