hyper-image

for piano concertante and 5 instruments (fl/bass fl, cl/bass cl, vl, vla, vc)
[2020]  dur. 18′ ca.

support: Fonds Podium Kunsten Nederlands

What is the darkness that we see then? Neurophysiologists tell us that the absence of light activates a series of peripheral cells in the retina called “off-cells”. When activated, these cells produce the particular kind of vision that we call darkness. Darkness is not, therefore, a privative notion (the simple absence of light, or something like non-vision) but rather the result of the activity of the “off-cells”, a product of our own retina. This means (…) that to perceive this darkness is not a form of inertia or passivity. Rather, it implies an activity and singular ability. In our case, this ability amounts to a neutralization of the lights that come from the epoch in order to discover its obscurity, its special darkness, which is not, however, separable from those lights.

Giorgio Agamben – Nudity – What Is the Contemporary?

hyper-image is the second piece of a diptych around retina, vision and hyper-vision.
The first piece of the diptych is after-image (2019) for Bass Clarinet and string quartet.
The two pieces can be performed one after the other (without interruptions) or performed as two independent pieces.