Buchla's instruments also represented the highest level of functional density available in commercial electronic music systems. The function of the oscillator is to generate a variety of stable waveforms to serve as the raw material, the proteins of the electronic art's symbolic life forms. Life forms are by nature in a constant state of flux, interacting with their environment through communication chains that range from short and simple to long and complex. The message of modern physics is that everything is in motion at the microstructural level. Objects are viewed as interacting events and process, sets of dynamic relationships that create forms of an ephemeral nature.
Formative flux is the essential nature of the effects of vibration.
All that is knowable is created and sustained by waves and their interactions. Even with the most responsive machines and the most accurate measuring instruments, it is not possible to control and predict the subtler behavioral levels of complex dynamic vibratory systems. Complex wave phenomena defy definition. The effect of definition would be to disconnect the integrative forces that produce the closely knit unified structure recognized as living form. Electronic instruments in the arts represent the most advanced available tools for experiencing and exploring the edifying nature of waves.