This paper re-evaluates the significance of Jos & eacute; Vicente Asuar (1933-2017), a pioneering figure in Latin American computer music, shifting the focus from the hardware construction of his COMDASUAR system to the innovative software he developed for algorithmic composition. While Asuar's hybrid digital-analog computer is noteworthy, the true core of his contribution lies in his original machine language programs designed for the Intel 8080 microprocessor. This study examines how Asuar thought about and designed algorithms specifically created for generating musical structures, processing symbolic data in real-time, and enabling interactive performance. By analyzing newly discovered handwritten notebooks containing his meticulous code documentation, we uncover Asuar's deep engagement with low-level programming to express complex musical ideas. His approach, focused on the computer as an "amplifier of the imagination," prioritized the development of software to facilitate generative composition and real-time manipulation of musical parameters. This paper argues that Asuar's legacy rests not solely on the COMDASUAR hardware but primarily on his visionary software architecture, which transformed the computer into a dynamic compositional partner. In doing so, he anticipated later developments in interactive music systems, demonstrating a pioneering approach to computer music that placed software innovation at its center.
This chapter examines The Cabinet (2022-present), an artistic research project that reimagines the baroque curiosity and art cabinet as a framework for exploring memory, space, and temporal retrieval in contemporary digital performance. Drawing on Rabelais' metaphor of “frozen sounds,” the author treats sound recordings as mnemonic vessels capable of reanimating silenced voices and spaces. By mapping the recording studio onto the humanist cabinet and the digital audio workstation onto the baroque art cabinet, the chapter theorizes the performer as curator-archaeologist navigating layered sonic memory. These ideas crystallize in Wiedergutmachungsdrang (2023), a work confronting personal and collective trauma through audiovisual repetition. Ultimately, The Cabinet proposes a sustainable alternative to contemporary performing arts' market-driven ‘presentism,' positing memory as a continuous performative act in which the past is actively retrieved to enrich the living present.
