lab fly dreams
Ensemble, soundtrack, video. [also version for percussion solo, electronics, video].
BBC Commission for Icebreaker Ensemble, Orkest de Volharding and live video by HC Gilje.
lab fly dreams is a collaboration with visual artist HC Gilje. It is a homage to the fruit fly, whose sleep patterns are studied by geneticists the world over in order to understand the workings of our own circadian rhythms. They are subjected to all manner of disorientating sleep enviroments, and are often kept awake over long periods of time. In some sessions, the scientists kept the flies from their rest by tapping whenever the insects stayed still for more than a minute. The rest-deprived animals compensated by sleeping more over the next few days, as sleep-deprived people do. What do these flies dream of in their plastic lab sleeping containers?
The music can be ordered from Donemus Publishing House, Amsterdam.
performance history
- 21 November 2003; Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
- 22 November 2003; The Dome, Brighton.
- 23 November 2003; Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
- 26 November 2003; Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry.
- 27 November 2003; HCMF, Huddersfield Town Hall.
- 13 January 2004; Amsterdam.
- 14 January 2004; Arnhem.
- 15 January 2004; Rotterdam.
- 17 January 2004; Eindhoven.
- 18 January 2004; Utrecht.