Objects in mirror are closer than they appear is an exploration of timbre and gesture. I began my composition of the piece by performing and recording the same note (E5) on various guitars, using different articulations, bowed, picked, and fingers. Using GRM tools, iZotope RX, and Logic, the sounds were processed and reimagined. Some remained close to their original form, others transformed to the point of being barely recognizable as a guitar but retaining aspects of the original musical gesture. 

Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World inspired the piece’s title. In his book, Morton uses the phrase which is printed on the rear-view mirror of every car sold in North America as a metaphor for the closeness of hyperobjects such as climate change, and nuclear waste, in the age of the Anthropocene. There is no longer an “over there” or an “away.” We find ourselves close, at times uncomfortably so, with the surrounding world.

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear premiered at the ASU Composition Studio Recital on November 15, 2020.