(This piece goes live on 4/13/2021 @ 00:00 EST and can be heard here, as well as on intermittently Cashmere Radio’s durational algorithmic show Chronopolis.)
Not too far from Earth, in relatively close proximity, there is a comet named 99942 Apophis (named after an Egyptian deity of 'chaos'). In 2004 this 370-meter-wide bugger caused quite a stir; there was, and still is, a 2.7% chance that 99942 Apophis would strike Earth on April the 13th, 2029...a Friday.
Composed with the visual coding language PureData and streamed to a web-based radio station, this piece is an absurdist sonic accompaniment to a potentially life changing event and a future-trip that has the possibility of invoking existentialist questions. The sonic aspect of this project is largely derivative of the foundational parameter: time. To be specific, 8 years. The unconventional length of time that this piece needed to cover to match up with the arc and movement of the asteroid was surely foundational, but not an end to itself.
(Do rest a bit easy- there is debate as to whether or not this initial date of potential impact is in fact accurate. Some researchers speculate that the asteroid will not be within our system until the year 2036. Other researchers, still, speculate that the asteroid won’t come so close to our humble dirt clod after all.)
This may not seem like a reason to sweat, yet in astronomical terms- it is quite the possibility.
In keeping with my trend of using factorial numbers to achieve astronomical values (pun somewhat intended), I calculated an ergodic sound piece, which would run out of all possible tonal combinations within exactly 8 years- if the piece began at midnight on April 13th, 2021.
The math was dubious and based in PureData logic. (Skip this part, if you're not in the mood for some math):
If I have 16 randomized ~oscillators, with a random variable of 4030Hz possible frequencies, changing at 36.712 seconds- all possibilities will be exhausted, as the comet strikes Earth and changes life as we know (and perhaps misunderstand) it.
Personal impetus:
I began the conceptualizing of this project in the first wave of the Covid-19 driven and government enforced lockdown. To keep my head and spirits afloat and my perspective realistic, I took to revisiting the writing of Albert Camus. Many afternoons were spent under a bridge by the Spree in Britz (my burrow) reading Camus' "The Stranger" and watching YouTube videos of various amateur philosophers dissect and reflect upon the absurdly calming effect of Camus' writing and his inevitable acceptance of a fate common to all: death.
Camus' writing help quell in me an anxiety that was based on the simple fact that one could not know what to except. His worldview on birth, death and that which comes in between helped me recognize that there simply was no way to know when the lockdown would end or even how. The absurdity he spoke of in his works began to become more of a practical tool, rather than a theoretical thought practice. Also helpful in my acceptance of life on life's terms was my revisiting of Lao Tzu's "Tao De Ching". In a similar way, one's perception is decentralized and is offered, by means of neutrality and realism, to simply live and be in the moment, or to take things as they unfold.
The call of the void and the seed of this project sprouted when I was serendipitously browsing through Wikipedia. My journey began at the Bootes Void, Barnard 64 and other un-worldly phenomena. Stumbling across 99942 Apophis , I became intrigued. Apophis was namely the Egyptian God of Chaos, among other things. My interest was further extended when I read that the asteroid was due to enter our immediate surroundings in 2029. April 13th, to be exact.
A Friday.
This piece is essentially the dissonant accompaniment to a means to a potential end and an occhiolistic reflection on my own size within the grander picture, set to rhythmical passage of time on this planet.