Retrorsum Volantem 2009
6 min
This piece was designed to be played back in the bell tower of the Woodside Church, Troy NY, with the bells. The audio of this piece reflects the symbiosis of rhythms which those who cohabitate fall into over time.
An examination of external events that synchronize organisms to a common time; zeitgebers are external cues (such as social interactions or eating and drinking patterns) that do this; church bells are sonic elements originating from the industrial revolution that do this. While these events group individuals under common ideas (such as monetary exchange or philosophical belief) they also subsume the nature of an individual’s physical patterns to the group. This piece uses mundane sounds or sounds without reference to a specific moment (the mechanical sound of the playing of the bells, the drone of bees, the sounds of breath) combined with references to time (the disembodied voice, the bells as a marker of the passing of time and a call back to the duties of community.)
"On a map on the 1:200,00 scale, especially on a Michelin map, the whole world seems happy; on a map of a larger scale, like the one I had of Lanzarote, things deteriorate: you start to make out the hotels, the leisure infrastructures. On a scale of 1:1 you find yourself back in the normal world, which is not very pleasant; but if you increase the scale even more, you are plunged into a nightmare: you start to make out the dust mites, mycoses, and parasites that eat away at the flesh. By two p.m., we were back at the center."
-M.H. 2005