Alicia Castillo, Composer & GUITARIST

In psychology flow is a state of mind in which you are fully immersed in an activity with energized focus and full involvement. In the flow state, your perception of time falls away as you're completely absorbed on the task at hand and you're at the intersection of high creativity and productivity. It's synonymous with "being in the groove", "being in the zone", or that moment where pieces are "coming together". As performers and composers, we often live in this state of mind as we're constantly challenged artistically to create something from seemingly nothing. On the other hand, the flow state can also be a dangerous state of mind because those moments can become addictive; we chase the feeling and can feel like we're unable to produce quality work unless we're in the flow state of mind.

I intended to capture this state of mind musically with a spatial ensemble to give the audience an immersive experience where they could feel as if they are in the flow state with the ensemble. I invite the audience to close their eyes during the performance in order to perceive changes between fragmentation and cohesion spatially as well as the rotational movement of the material coming together.