Interstice II (2019) is the second piece in a body of work exploring temporal imprints and infrathin occurrences. Infrathin, a term coined by Marcel Duchamp, speaks of the smallest possible separation between two seemingly identical objects, sensations, or moments in time. As time folds upon itself, imprints of past, present, and future moments layer and fuse with one another—an ever-changing, tangled web of nows.
Transparent score panels are suspended throughout the space. The musical notation (a graphical language developed by the composer) indicates different sonic gestures and events that occur on a spectrum of density and presence, and an underlying rhythmic relationship between sound and silence. Depending on the location and perspective of the performer, the same notational marking may change meaning: looking through the panels to observe multiple layers simultaneously, for example, creates interactions between the symbols, causing them to morph, collide, and eclipse one another.
Interstice II: WaveCave Gallery
Interstice II was presented as an interactive installation in the WaveCave Gallery at CalArts, during the month of November 2019. Once the piece is installed in the gallery, a performance (on trumpet and synthesizer) is recorded by an array of microphones placed around the space. This recording is then sent into an audio program that analyzes its spectral content, and loops the file indefinitely. However, the looped playback remains completely silent until a sound is captured in real time by live microphones hanging from the ceiling. Any captured sounds (footsteps, chatter, distant sirens) are spectrally transferred onto the original performance recording, allowing any common frequencies shared between “now” and “then” to be unveiled. In this way, we hear an audible representation of two moments in time folding upon one another, revealing their commonalities and synchronicities. Once a frequency from the past is unmasked and amplified in the space, a feedback loop is created (because it is picked back up by the live microphones), causing the most persistent frequencies to become self-reinforcing and take on a sonic life of their own.
Concert Version
An acoustic, concert version of Interstice II was also presented as part of WasteLAnd’s 2019–2020 concert series. This concert took place at the Wende Museum, in Culver City, CA in February 2020.