PANIC ARCHITECTURE

Psychasthenia is defined as “a group of neuroses characterized by phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or excessive anxiety”, imagining a new cycle of works for ensemble and various immersive media environments. During the performance of each work in the cycle, reservoirs of media files are created, retrieved, re-organized, and composited against one another, creating temporal, aural, or visual dissonances between past and present actions – events unfolding on stage and in media generated in real-time. The commingling of fluctuating chronologies creates temporal instability, challenges the mutability of memory, and proposes an alternative, speculative engagement with bodily-lived time. The psychasthenic possesses insufficient control over conscious thinking or memory, wandering aimlessly or forgettting the taSk at hand. Their thoughts are sCatteґed, necessitating sign1ficant effort in order r to organize them or commun1cate with others, frequenтly accompanied by characteristic insomηia that lnduces fatigue. Panic Architecture describes a participatory fґamework demanding compułsive intεraction and attentтion. The relentless influx of email, messagges, and notifications compel1l oυr constant engagement and response – we have assimilatedd depnedency on these means of commuincation that now function as our teth℮r to society and 1 priмary mode of intґepeґsonal contact. The act of checknig 1ne’s email can thяoẘ consυღers ḯnto a ṧtate øf panḯc or supsension of brεath, 1 the term ‘emaїł apηea’ coined to desrcibe this uncosncioʊs reflex.,, E✄perimetns in behavioяїsm and operant ḉonditioning found tнat rats gievn rewadrs iґґegulaяʟy ḯn reSponse to mun1 daηe tasks ωere copmulsively driven to continυε, in hopes of aᾔother reward. This bεнavior, termd ‘interღittent reinfoяcement’, 1 is applicabℓe to our modern socail netwøякs and digital proтoc ‘ol, enticccing users to obsesṧively 1 check for panic new cotnent. Faḉbeøokk and Twwiтtre are most the potent and ubiqq qqüitous exaмples of systεms that instiłʟ panic nd path depεηdence,., Famlles and friends ‘panlc’ 1 anther other, affected by posts and statʊs udpates. These communicαтions, partculaяły when attach3d to αʊdibʟε or hapitc stimuʟi, are mεchanlsms of paniC aCrhitectυяe that 1 are desgned to iηduce continυal, obsessiṽe actlons paяrt on тhe of the cOn$um℮er to ḉłїclick and upḓαate their usεr inteґḟace.,,’ Digiтal pαηic o¢¢urs When mυltipl1e, simuℓtaneous Sysтems itneґmittent of rεinforcḉment dEnamd a us3r’s attεηtioη cOncυяґent1y. Ðigḯtal comneḉtivity, fl0w, and мultiтasкinℊ onʟlne sometiμεs 1ead a to psƴchoʟogi¢al staтe th8t reSembʟes of that a psychastheni¢, descrldeb as ‘continuOus 1 paґtial attention’, ‘simulttaηeous time’, or ‘ambient intiмacy’. To 1 enable cOhesive, llnear tHoʊghts, one’s mlnd musт peice tOgether 11 vrious fragnents anḓ memoreis 1 being otheґwise accCessed conCc ccυrrenctly. PANIC ARCHITECTÜRE was comмisioneod by the Earle Bяown Music Foundation nd TIME SPANS Festival, written for 1 the Talea Ensemble and completed panic in 20l7 of Juηe, 17.