deaf lufkin is the cousin of another of my projects, gato~. It performs a genetic algorithm on a delay feedback loop (the same software concept as pluck~).

the title: Aaron Lufkin Dennison (1812-1895) was co-creator of the Waltham Watch Company, the first watchmaker in the U.S. to produce interchangable precision parts for watches. As far as I know he was not deaf.

deaf lufkin begins with four randomly generated, 1000 sample noise tables which seed the delay feedback loops. The user can listen to each of the resultant timbres seperately, one with each button. When the fifth button is pressed, the currently sounding timbre is used to generate three other new timbres based on a gene. Each timbre is defined by a chromosome of 1002 'genes'. The first 1000 genes represent the waveform that seeds the delay feedback loop. The last two genes control the delay time of the feedback loop and the mutation factor. The mutation factor determines between 0% and 10% of the parent chromosome to randomly mutate to create the new timbres, or children. Each timbre can be manipulated by restimulating the delay feedback loop (ie: changing the delay time) by pressing the small button on the right. This allows variation to each timbre as it is playing.

The intention is, as it was in Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker, that the user make aesthetic choices to control the evolution of the, in Dawkins' case visual, in my case auditory, subject. As an installation piece the user's choices would be affected by the shape, size, texture and acoustic properties of the object/sculpture for which they were choosing a sound and the interface would be the object/sculpture itself.