Cameron Sinclair: Automata [download]
Composition for solo percussion and electronics.
Computer typeset score (10 p.) saved as pdf plus .wav file, available for immediate download.
First performance: BBC Young Musicians Percussion Final on 9 July 2022 in the Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden.
In Robot Visions Isaac Asimov wrote:
"In a properly educated and automated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanising influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile."
The reverse must equally be true. Without proper education and oversight, machines may be used to achieve the antithesis of Asimov's Utopia.
In Automata, the human becomes incorporated into the machine, subsumed by its relentless energy, before it finally collapses and dissipates into nothingness.