Objects of my attention made more of me

Written mostly in 2021 but a little in 2022 for cello and piano (45 minutes)

For about a year, I was deeply preoccupied with dream logic, non-sequitur, and the subconscious. How can the subconscious reveal deep connections across time without you initially being aware of them – and then how can you discover new connections and new ways of thinking about the same idea in new ways with this material that seemingly has nothing to do with anything. How can I be receptive to the unfiltered, free-form experience of thought?

With Objects of my attention made more of me, I would often write sections of this piece completely apropos of nothing, without looking at other material from the piece – but I would meditate on the piece, think about it deeply as an overall aura rather than anything specific. Write page after page “about” the piece, around the piece, sometimes away from the piece entirely, without organizing the pages or marking their page numbers – just write, just create, just dream and explore. Then, eventually put it all together – find the logic inherent in your subconscious. Find the form and the connections you might not have seen but that were always there inside you.

The bulk of this piece was written in the summer of 2021 while Artist in Residence of the Florida Everglades. This was a month-long residence during the slow-season for the national park and I lived in a ranger’s station just inside the camp grounds, but still about 20 miles from any real town. I would go days without seeing or speaking to another human outload. At the same time, the internet was unreliable, cell phone service was poor, and I spent most of my days exploring the park and doing field recordings for Self-portrait as a meditation on somewhere else. While a month of this was probably a little much for me, there was plenty of time for dreaming.