This Place. Left Behind.

This Place. Left Behind. was composed for the Quince Ensemble during the Klinger Electroacoustic Residency. The piece examines how communication evolves over time, focusing on how messages might seem alien to future generations.

The text is based on a 1993 report by Sandia National Laboratories, which explored long-term nuclear waste warning messages designed to deter intrusion at nuclear waste sites for up to 10,000 years. This report delves into nuclear semiotics—the study of conveying warnings across vast time scales.

Inspired by the report’s focus on distant audiences, I explored how the text's meaning could become fragmented over millennia. Words were broken into syllables to reflect the uncertainty of future readers deciphering the message. The music blends voice and electronic elements, creating a distorted, complex sound that mirrors the breakdown of communication over time.