The End of History, is a series of sound installations, print editions and performances where pieces of baroque, classical and romantic music are algorithmically manipulated and remapped through random and probability based contemporary practices. The resultant soundscapes are a compellingly progressive combination of these disparate approaches and are realised via tools that I build in the MAX/MSP programming environment. The archival works on paper are manipulations of the source pieces’ scores,which visually represent the chaotic sonic processes.

In this, my most recent confluence of theory and practice, historic pieces of music are used as a springboard to an intertextual critique of the interaction of cultural production and form. Inspired by the Marxian/ Hegelian notion of the end of history as the transformative edification of a class free utopia, these explorations will culminate in a series of pieces and writings reflecting a structural analysis, not only of the music but the systems of power that were responsible for its original creation. What were the prevailing models of philosophical thought and how were they materialized in political systems? How was the interaction of political and religious power expressed in musical form? How can we use this to critique the current systems of cultural production? Aside from the compelling forms and instrumentation, the works of the baroque, classical and romantic periods remain interesting to me because they are products of clearly defined socio political power dynamics. European royalty and religious authorities commissioned many of these pieces. The realization and presentation of these works were completely dependent on how they reinforced the values of the power structure.