NOCTURNE I (2022)
“Entities are not entirely caught like algorithms in the gravitational pull of the past. There is also levity: the lightness of futurality” (Morton, 2017).  

Graphic score with bioluminescent algae for solo tam-tam.

Nocturne I is series of photographs which are the composite of many individual frames of slow-motion videography. Pyrocystis Fusiformis is a nocturnal organism with a bioluminescent response to movement. In this work, the bioluminescent gestures are presented as musical information for the human performer to interpret. This technique situates the work within the established field of gestural music notation—that which represents the movement of the musical body through space, as opposed to the resulting sound.

The title of this work makes reference to the nocturne in Western music, which is generally a short, hyper-romantic work evocative of the night. The instrumental choice of tam-tam was to evoke the soundscape of the ocean; the wash of the waves. Nocturne I critically investigates the role of music notation and photography in capturing ephemeralness and liveness; music performance and bioluminescence are here positioned as phenomenologically akin.