Origins
for fixed 6-channel (or stereo) electronics
“What if not everyone wants to go along with this?”
-Ray Kurzweil
Origins is primarily concerned with the nature of human/technological interaction, both in our current period of social networks where virtual communities often become substitutes for physical ones, and in the “Singularity,” a hypothesized approaching union of human and artificial intelligence.
In attempting to blur the line between biology and technology, the work mimics the organic process of evolution. Every sound of the work grows from the opening primordial soup of low rumbling with unintelligible vocalizations bubbling to the surface. An almost primal rhythmic strand running throughout the piece, and the constant motion from low distorted sounds to purer high ones emphasize the evolutionary structure. The work also employs a human voice that is morphed into something more mechanical over time and seems to be drowning in a sea of synthesized sound. This is juxtaposed by a beautiful and flowing female voice, which is purely synthesized, challenging the listener to question what is human and what is not; what does it mean to be human; and will “human” and “artificial” intelligence one day be the same thing.
Origins asks what it means to be human, and what aspects of the human experience are lost in these uses of technology.
-Ray Kurzweil
Origins is primarily concerned with the nature of human/technological interaction, both in our current period of social networks where virtual communities often become substitutes for physical ones, and in the “Singularity,” a hypothesized approaching union of human and artificial intelligence.
In attempting to blur the line between biology and technology, the work mimics the organic process of evolution. Every sound of the work grows from the opening primordial soup of low rumbling with unintelligible vocalizations bubbling to the surface. An almost primal rhythmic strand running throughout the piece, and the constant motion from low distorted sounds to purer high ones emphasize the evolutionary structure. The work also employs a human voice that is morphed into something more mechanical over time and seems to be drowning in a sea of synthesized sound. This is juxtaposed by a beautiful and flowing female voice, which is purely synthesized, challenging the listener to question what is human and what is not; what does it mean to be human; and will “human” and “artificial” intelligence one day be the same thing.
Origins asks what it means to be human, and what aspects of the human experience are lost in these uses of technology.