Impermanence

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I’ve always viewed and listened to the ocean in a special way, and the sounds of the field recording inspired me to create this piece. I called it Impermanence for a couple of reasons… just like our lives and our consciousness, the waves are both individual and part of the ocean at the same time - all and one. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as is said in Buddhism.
"At my mother’s funeral a couple of years back, as is part of our culture, we scattered her ashes into a river, which flows into the ocean. So I always think of her when I look out into the sea, wherever I am in the world, as she's now a part of it. I managed to get some sampled recordings of her, from an old video recorder my brother had playing with my niece some 20 odd years ago, which I've placed in the middle of the piece… hopefully conveying my memories of her within the sounds of the ocean waves.
"We all have different beliefs which of course should be respected, but I believe we as humans are both temporary (in conscious existence) and permanent… our atoms, which are indestructible, go back into the earth and sea. It’s a dichotomy which I find quite humbling. Our consciousness is short-lived and fleeting, yet we’re all connected and part of a vast and (probably) eternal Universe… much like the waves in the ocean.
"This is the message I wanted the piece to convey - that we are all part of One, despite our temporary existence, and the memories of my mother, whom I’ll never forget when I look out into the sea and the waves."
Sunset shoreline on Malapascua Island, Philippines reimagined by Jaspal Singh Bhogal.