In the book Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett convincingly argues that there is nothing about human consciousness, emotion or experience that cannot be encompassed by a purely physical, biological and mechanical explanation. We do not need to refer to some imaginary ‘soul’ or ‘mind’s eye’ to describe our experiences. We are, in short, machines—just very clever machines.
These three short miniatures push the performer to the limits; yet, paradoxically, a ‘human’ reading of the score still brings to the surface a more energetic, compelling, and arguably musical performance than a merely mechanical rendition.
Machine Noises was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand for Stephen de Pledge, as part of the Landscape Preludes project, as during the work’s composition, much of downtown Wellington was dominated by machines building a new bypass through the heart of the city.