Traces

Traces was written for and dedicated to the Byrne:Kozar:Duo in the Winter and Spring of 2023.

I wrote this piece to focus on the emotional impact of technology, particularly computer-generated artwork. To begin, I developed texts on the themes of parasociality and alienation in the face of AI-generated “content” (visual art/music/curation/chat bots/etc). This fragmented poetry represents both an interpretation and example of these themes, avoiding moral evaluation while encouraging listeners to consider their relationship with technology and the psychological impact that it might have.

The music explores these same themes around the impact of technology through an interactive relationship between the live musicians and bespoke software that generates sound in reaction to the performers in real time. To create the electronic part, the two members of the Byrne:Kozar:Duo recorded themselves improvising as well as pre-written musical excerpts that I used to “train” the software to improvise/generate sound interactively by sampling from these recordings. This technique is designed to, at times, give the impression of “tracing” the live performers as the software attempts to recreate what it hears as rapidly as possible, but limited by its training.

Commissioned by the Byrne:Kozar:Duo.

Premiere: Byrne:Kozar:Duo at TIME:SPANS, Cary Hall, DiMenna Center, New York, August 21, 2021.