Pierce Warnecke

Path’s end

ABOUT PATHS

“All paths lead to nowhere…” A path is a line that connects two points. The starting point to a path is always clear; it is where you are when you start. It is harder to define, though, where the path might end. Do esitinfinitely get smaller until it disappears into the wilderness? Maybe it becomes an animal path, no longer marked in maps or even really usable by humans-could we say it has for people, ended? Or if it merges with another path, does it (like a small river flowing into a bigger one) end where the larger one starts? Or does it also continue still as it’s own sub path within the larger one, hidden to the naked eye? When a path disappears, slowly tapers off, dissolves into the wild, where is the ending point? Nowhere… because it cannot be fixed for sure. Nowhere…because it is most likely in the middle of nowhere.

ENDING UP NOWHERE

If all these incomplete paths end now here, then they all end up in the same non-place, “Nowhere”? Let’s be silly for a minute and imagine that this is physically possible; that there’s a tiny, fractional fold in space-time exactly where a path ends that leads to a limbo, a no man’s land, an empty white room with no walls? If it exists, it is so small and precise that we cannot see it-which is why we don’t see where a path ends. But maybe with the help of an instrumentto augment one of our senses we could perceive it? Would a recording device be able to senseit sonically? It is true that physical ubiquity is impossible (excepton a quantic level); but it isvery possible to have 2 places coexist sonically-one only needs to layer the 2 sounds. Sowhere is nowhere? Nowhere is the sum of all places where a path disappears. It is where all of the “now here’s” intersect.

WHY THE PATH’S END?

The search for a path’s end can be seen as an optimistic outlook; it says that all things havean end, a goal or an explanation at the very least. The idea that there is no specific end to apath but a gradual disappearance is an interesting metaphor to me; I like the idea that somethings may be left hanging. Boundaries are not clear-cut black and white. There are infinite shades of gray between the binaries of good and evil. It also reminds me of the artistic creative process, which is a path in itself. Similarly, the start is always clear (one even has often some kind of plan or map), but finding the exact spot where it ends is more difficult. To take a path is to make a choice; a selection in a certain direction (it can even be backwards!). In an entire region of paths, there is a complex web of choices, an ensemble of possibilities. The choice in this web belongs to the user, not the maker of the path. This active decision-making relates more to generative open-ended composition rather than fixed duration sound pieces. I would propose a generative software to playback the recordings.

Pierce Warnecke is a sound and video artist currently residing in Berlin. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2007 and in 2013 completed his Meisterschüler studies at Universität der Kunst, Kunst und Medien. In addition to artistic works, he co-curates Emitter Micro Festival and label with Kris Limbach. He has presented his works at KW Institut (Berlin),LEAP (Berlin), Harvestworks (NY), Luggage Store Gallery (SF), Berklee (Boston), CalArts (LA) as well as festivals like Zero 1 Biennale, Transmediale, Bozart/BEAF (Brussels), BostonCyberarts, Visionsonic, Pixelache, Vidéoformes, SXSW Interactive and more. He has released music on Khalija, Staaltape, Gaffer and Attenuation Circuit, and Gruenrekorder.