LIGO (2019)
for solo flute or recorder, fixed media
projection by Josh Nanna
written for Antonina Styczén
Program Note (2019) The sounds you are hearing consist of sonified data from The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The Observatory successfully detected gravitational waves from an event that occured billions of years ago where two black holes were pulled into each others’ orbit, which secured the researchers a Nobel Prize in physics. The relationship between the audio and the performer is meant to represent these two black holes and their interactions - the inspiral, where the two are pulled into each others orbit, the merger, where they collide, and the ringdown, where they unify. Through this tension, I also mean to demonstrate two ways we can experience cosmic phenomena: scientifically, through observation, and expressively, through the imagination. Thanks to Antonina Styczén for being a powerful performer and collaborator of contemporary work.