timelines | timecircles

fixed electronics (2020)
Duration: 7’

Time moves strangely. In one sense, it is linear, progressing from one event to the next in strictly chronological fashion. Yet in another sense, it is circular, repeating over the same cycles—days, seasons, planetary orbits—ad infinitum. Time both moves inexorably and does not move at all.

This piece is inspired by these convoluted shapes. It takes as its basic gesture a simple idea: a wash of sound, ascending from low to high. (a line)

But this gesture repeats cyclically throughout the course of the piece. (circles made of lines)

But each subsequent cycle is different from the last—texturally denser and rising at a faster pace—thus creating a linear progression across several cycles. (a line made of circles made of lines)

But halfway through the piece, the trajectory reverses: the blurs of sound progress downward, and each subsequent cycle is calmer than the previous. Thus, the piece is symmetrical, ending exactly as it began—it is itself one large cycle. (a circle made of lines made of circles made of lines)

With this piece, I hope to convey a sense of morphing perpetuity. The surface details are constantly moving forward, yet the underlying processes are repetitious, unchanging.