PRELUDES #20

Each PRELUDES work contains twelve bars generated by a compositional algorithm. Paglen designed the notation around the timing, duration and loudness of the notes, using Tone.js for sound. Output #20 combines bass, bells and organ in G-sharp major pentatonic, with two circular notations and one linear notation. Its recorded style is “Combined.”

The series draws on the experimental music of John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, as well as traditions of encoding messages in musical composition. Its central question is how a secret can be hidden within an artwork whose underlying code is publicly accessible. The puzzle extends beyond the image: the stereo signal can also be approached as visual information.

The opening stereo signal contains a further image. Feeding its left and right channels to the horizontal and vertical axes of an XY oscilloscope reveals the words “FOLLOW - PROVIDE - YARD”. Sound becomes a drawing instrument, placing the work in dialogue with the history of oscilloscope imagery. Its circular notation also invites an orbital reading, although no particular satellite or space mission has been identified.

Released through Art Blocks and Pace Verso on 5 April 2023, PRELUDES is an entry point into CYCLOPS, a project linking music, cryptography, a mainframe-style interface and historical investigation. The moving score returns to its established arrangement as the music progresses; it does not resolve into a separate final picture.