Mutor: Drone Chorus of Metrically Muted Motors

The use of mechatronics and robotics in works of sound art and music has grown over the past decade. Among the significant body of work done in these fields, this paper narrows down its focus on those that employ mechatronics and robotics in order to explore and investigate new sonic possibilities associated with these technologies. Followed by a discussion on characteristics of such works of mechatronic sound art, this paper presents Mutor: a new mechatronic sound-object that utilizes the sonic artifacts of mechatronic systems––specifically, the noise of a DC motor––as its primary source of sound, and modulates it rhythmically and timbrally.