The Source's mylar membrane keyboard panel let's players "bridge the gap" between the layers of membrane, which let's the current flow. This "closure" (cf McCloud) focuses the Source's incremental control knob on the selected sound parameter. In this way the same tuning/turning/dialing/twirling gesture allows the player to trope the sound differently, first this way, then that way, and indeed in a seemingly endless differential of noise and drift--all of this by simply opening and closing the gaps with one hand, and tuning the incremental control knob with the other.

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From today's perspective, Buchla's names for his components read like a set or manual of depatterning protocols for opening up developmental pathways in networked writing environments, where timing is everything. Indeed, his multiple arbitrary function generators, kinesthetic input ports, and random functions were means for accepting and working with complexity in the composing process "in real time" (Pinch , p. 47). Pinch describes Buchla's "esthetic" and "vision," but such naming and framing operates as a pedagogy, as well. Buchla, the analog intstrument maker, provides a model for teachers and students seeking to treat wiki spaces as tunable instruments. In particular, Buchla's array of high-stochastic energy inputs suggest uses for digital pedagogy constrained by authorial expectations.

cue moog source narrative, here.

membrane switch cure