pierce warnecke

introductory notes on aural-hypnotic methods of sabotage for systems and constructs began as a study, during the first few months of the 2020 pandemic, of sonic and visual materiality: speed, contrast, light, texture, reflection, reverberation, shadow, movement, color, etc. but as windows on the world became restricted to the tiny distorted ones offered by social media during consecutive lockdowns, i spent more time online and was stunned by the alarming amount of dishonest exchanges and downright false ideas circulating.

so i began to imagine the piece, in addition to an abstract audiovisual study, as a sense-oriented tool/weapon that could be used to de/reprogram fanatic, false, conspiratorial, and/or cult-like thought patterns, with the basic premise being that perhaps an experience can be jarring or unexpected enough to wake someone up from an outlandish thinking process that may be negatively impacting their life and the lives of those around them. i don't think i'm alone in having thought at some point 'i wish they would just snap out of it'.

could there be a simple osmosis between a hypnotic state caused by abstract sound-image patterns and a person's deeply seeded social fears and angers? could a shock on one side of this link, through an unexplained psycho-physical entrainment, lead to a reprogramming on the other?

the idea seems clearly far-fetched and mostly explored in fictional cold war era spy movies, yet when presented in a positive light, for example brainwave entrainment for meditation using binaural beats, there is definitely more popular traction (if one is to trust the number of plays on internet videos). so shouldn't a weaponized version of waves influencing the brain work as well as a mindful one?

i don't believe so. but the idea did prove useful as a compositional guide to add more contrast, abruptness, and unexpected shifts between calm and chaos to this piece. and who knows, maybe i did add a secret sonic and visual pattern that will re-code your thoughts. would you notice?