Subatomic Time

Subatomic Time is a 35-minute performance piece for percussion, live audio processing, and live video mixing. The work is in seven sections: Small Science, RGBongo, Maquette XV, Marimba Stretch, Particle Zoo, Pin Music, and Zoom Out; Small Science and Maquette XV are without video and performable as concert pieces for percussion. The titles of the piece and of the various sections reflect the central notion of extremes of spatial and temporal scale; parallels are drawn between camera-related techniques (zoom, focus, pan, colour saturation) and audio processing (amplification, reverberation and filtering, spatialization, spectral manipulations). Aural and visual material is presented sometimes in parallel, sometimes in counterpoint, and sometimes heterophonically. The full version of Subatomic Time was premiered in Windsor, Ontario and subsequently presented at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference in Austin Texas (November 2012) and at the Festival des musiques de creation in Saguenay Quebec (May 2015). Filmmaker Kim Nelson made a documentary performance film of Subatomic Time based on the 2012 performances