Starlyn D'Souza | Madhavi Ghore | P.S Jalaja | Nirmal Kulkarni | Violeta Lisboa | Romain Loustou | Lavanya Mani | Atish Saha
Feedback Loop is a system arrangement that causes an output from one node, which eventually causes an input to that node. It is a channel or a pathway formed by ‘effect’, returning to its ‘cause’, and generating either more or less of the same effect.
It seems a little complicated at first, but once you grasp the concept, it is rather enjoyable.
This creates a circuit of cause and effect, creating a loop based on multiple feedbacks, a Feedback loop. It is a highly intriguing concept enabling us to understand processes and patterns in addition to drawing conclusions, which could be positive or negative, depending on the input.
A feedback loop occurs when a change in something ultimately comes back to cause a further change in the same thing. If this change is in the same direction it’s a positive or reinforcing loop. If it’s in the opposite direction it’s a negative or balancing loop, also called a goal-seeking loop. An example of a reinforcing (positive) loop is Population Growth. As the births per year rises, so does the population. As the population chart goes up, so does the estimated future population. This also provides solutions to how a system can be controlled. Another example to help us understand this better is the quality of food we
eat (input) reflects on how our body responds to it, which results in what we call ‘our health’. If we eat junk food all day, our bodies will assimilate the excess carbohydrates and low nutrition and will result in weight gain, laziness and an overall decrease in productivity.
Simply put, a positive feedback loop makes a system larger and larger until a breaking point. The larger it gets, its tendency to get larger increases. The reverse of getting
continuously smaller can also be the result of a positive feedback. A negative feedback loop tends to resist a thing’s current course of change. If it is growing, it will make this process more difficult.
Examples of a positive feedback loop could be a hurricane, which gets bigger as it moves, or love, the more you give and receive, the more it evolves. However, a negative feedback loop could be, for example, body temperature, or homeostasis. When temperature of the body increases, the body sweats in order to cool down due to evaporation. But when the temperature decreases, the body shivers to bring it up and reach equilibrium.
Spiritually speaking, while we meditate, it brings a sense of well being to the mind, while silently spreading the same feeling, via a chemical like telomerase, to your DNA. The mind-body connection is enhanced and it affects every cell in the body.
This term is applicable to music production, economics, sociology, nature, and technology in a collateral manner of ‘give-receive-perceive’ format, and this complexity gives an entirely new dimension to the process. Considering the loops within the body and mind as well as the feedback between the environment and us can create a whole spectrum of realms with which we can ideate and create.
Each work has been a result of enriching conversations, and each artist has widened my perspective of this title and opened up various avenues of approaching Feedback Loop.