The Composite Incompossible: Forbidden symmetries

Abstract

This work is a collaboration between Steve Tromans and Heidi Schmidt, and operates in the fold between sound art and philosophy. Both researchers recorded improvised monologues on themes of folding, the tesseract, space and time, and Tromans mixed these together in a composition that utilises time and pitch stretching, stereo-field panning, delay and echo-bounce effects, to provide for the listener an experience of “incompossibility” (cf. Deleuze 1988). The piece’s composite incompossibility is created through the superposition, unfolding, and enfolding of the voices – transforming their original space and time into a “forbidden” zone: the event of the piece’s tesseract. The final composition happens in the listening, rendering the listener a co-composer / compositor.

Keywords

• The fold
• The tesseract
• Sound Art
• Philosophy
• Composition
• Deleuze studies