SunSurgeAutomata

Listen to sunSurgeAutomata

The title comes from Lewis Thomas' <bold><italic>The Lives of a Cell</italic></bold> in which he describes the "steady surge of energy pouring out from the sun into the unfillable sink of empty space by way of the earth", resulting in the "improbable ordered dance" that we call life.

All sounds in the piece are derived from "clicks" organized using one-dimensional cellular automata (self-organizing systems, the most familiar example of which is the 2-D version called Conway's Game of Life). Clicks were chosen as the source material because in the mountains of New Mexico (where the composer grew up), nearly every animal makes some kind of clicking sound.

Realized using the Platypus Digital Signal Processor.