Christian Mason in unknown elements... in endless transmutation... (2022-2023)
The title comes from a text by Nancy Campbell, whom I met during a residency at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in 2019. There we were told about Ida Noddack (née Tacke), one of the chemists who discovered the element rhenium in Bamberg in 1925. In Nancy’s poem – How to Discover an Element – I found a very succinct expression of the idea that I believe is at the heart of my piece (not to mention that it also seems to express a broader artistic ideal):
“Believe in unknown elements. Believe in endless transmutation, have a vision of fission. Even as the world fractures, believe in integrity at the Earth’s core, believe in the future.” (Nancy Campbell: Uneasy Pieces, Guillemot Press, 2022)
In slightly less poetic terms, the original idea was to invite former winners of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation to submit short audio fragments from which I would create a constantly changing collage, a kind of sound kaleidoscope, to celebrate the foundation’s 50th anniversary. Never before have I had to deal with so much material in such a short time, and yet there seems to be a world of possibilities in every fragment, so I see the result as an instance of possibility rather than a fixed quantity.
Christian Mason
© Christian Mason
Thank you very much for the contributions from:
|
Mark Andre |
Mirela Ivičević |
Luis Codera Puzo |
© Ilja Mess
I would also like to thank Maurice Oeser of SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg for his technical support in developing the life-time player patch that was so useful in creating this collage.
The late Harrison Birtwistle once said to me (in relation to some Bach arrangements): “The trouble with Bach is that you can only make him worse”. I fear that the same could be said of the works of all the artists mentioned above. I can only hope that you can still enjoy a few moments of experimentation…
Christian Mason, February 2023