Since the rise of social media platforms in the late-1990s, human-to-human communication has never been easier. In fact, many believe that it has become too easy. We can scroll and scroll through our social media pages all day and never see anything new. Each day on social media is a re-permutation the same statuses, the same memes, the same pictures, and the same comments; it is a simulacrum of superficiality. The virtual world is a closed circuit, and we are all stuck in it; blissfully circulating.

​

This piece is derived from fragments of the similarly named piece for small chamber ensemble “always update status” written for Ensemble Signal earlier in 2021 for the June in Buffalo festival. 15 single measures of this piece were taken and compressed into one line. Through various processes of improvisation, these 15 compressed measures were then juxtaposed into various permutations against each-other to form one ‘stanza’. This stanza is repeated thrice in this piece, with each iteration being a rough tracing of the previous; an ephemeral, etched rendering of that which preceded it.

​

Always in a state of forward motion, this piece slowly runs out of energy and breaks down; all progression is ultimately proven futile as it circulates around a limited repertoire of 15 slowly decaying motifs.