Spinlock dreaming
A spinlock is a concept in programming that describes a waiting state.
Programmers often call it “busy waiting”. The thread cannot be terminated, because it is needed, but the process cannot move forward either, so it circles around indefinitely, asking again and again to be allowed to continue.
The piece was written at a time when all concerts were cancelled. Collaboration with musicians had been temporarily replaced by collaboration with machines, and so Spinlock Dreaming came to be as one of several pieces in a series of machine poetry works. After the pandemic, I think many of us may recognise the feeling of “busy waiting”; you cannot stop, but you cannot go where you want to either.
This piece was nominated for the Norwegian Society of Composers' annual award in 2022, and was performed by The Progression Ensemble Oslo. Sound and footage is from their concert at Hamar Theatre on the 11th of November 2021.