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Mass Observation is a meditation on the histories of our varied ambivalent relationships with surveillance in its myriad guises. The use of technologies that sate our desires to be watched and heard (safety, tracking, empowerment, and pride) has, in some sense, always been able to be weighed against our anxieties around invasions of privacy (physical and psychological harm, hacking, subjugation, and embarrassment).
The work takes its title from the British social research organization, Mass-Observation, which aimed to record everyday life in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1937, Mass-Observation controversially paid investigators to anonymously record people's conversation and behavior at work, on the street and at various public occasions including public meetings, sporting, and religious events.
Scored for chorus and percussion sextet, Mass Observation ebbs and flows between various polarities (human voices and percussion instruments, pitched and unpitched sounds, clear and opaque tonalities) over the course of its thirteen movements. There is a ritualistic nature to the overall pacing of the work, reminiscent of a liturgical mass setting. The two groups of musicians are rarely aligned: for much of the piece they watch and listen to one another in silence.
Tarik O’Regan
MASS OBSERVATION
text compiled by Tarik O’Regan
1 | PRELUDE
2 | WATCHING: ARGUS PANOPTES
The mountain sat upon the plain
In his eternal chair,
His observation omnifold,
His inquest everywhere.
from Poem LXXII, published in Poems, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson (1890), by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.
from Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, and Homerica (1914),
by H. G. Evelyn-White (1884 - 1924)
3 | INTERLUDE I
4 | BOUNDLESS INFORMANT: THE INSPECTION PRINCIPLE
To say all in one word, it will be found applicable, I think, without exception, to all establishments whatsoever, in which […] a number of persons are meant to be kept under inspection.
from Panopticon (1791),
by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Dust that wanders, eyeing
(With eyes that hardly glow)
New faces, dimly spying
For friends that come and go.
from Ballade of Dead Friends, published in Children of the night: a book of poems (1910),
by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
It is the most important point, that the persons to be inspected should always feel themselves as if under inspection.
from Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham
5 | INTERLUDE II
6 | PRISM I: WE LOOK THROUGH THEM AT THE WORLD, AND ULTIMATELY STARE BACK AT OURSELVES*
Without lyre, without lute or chorus,
Death a silent pilot comes at last.
From Glukupikros Eros (1881)
by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
And in the drone of the aeroplane the voice of the summer sky murmured its fierce soul. […] Men, women, and children were spotted for a second upon the horizon, and then […] they wavered and sought shade beneath the trees.
It seemed as if all […] had sunk down in the heat motionless and lay huddled upon the ground, but their voices went wavering from them as if they were flames lolling from the thick waxen bodies of candles.
From Kew Gardens, published in the collection Monday or Tuesday (1921),
by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
7 | INTERLUDE III: NUMBERS STATION**
Six. Niner. Zero. Oblique. Fiver. Two.
Attention.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Niner. Three. Zero. Four. Fiver.
Three. Six. Eight. Three. Niner.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four
Attention.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four.
Out.
8 | PRISM II: THEY WITNESS THE CARNAGE***
Voices. Yes, voices. Wordless voices, breaking the silence suddenly with such depth of contentment, such passion of desire, or, in the voices of children, such freshness of surprise; breaking the silence? But there was no silence. […] The voices cried aloud and the petals of myriads of flowers flashed their colours into the air.
from Kew Gardens, Virginia Woolf
9 | INTERLUDE IV
10 | LISTENING I: STILLNESS
I listen to the stillness of you,
My dear, among it all;
I feel your silence touch my words as I talk,
And take them in thrall.
My words fly off a forge
The length of a spark;
I see the night-sky easily sip them
Up in the dark.
from Listening, published in Amores (1916),
by D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
11 | INTERLUDE V
12 | LISTENING II: OBSERVATION OMNIFOLD
The mountain sat upon the plain
In his eternal chair,
His observation omnifold,
His inquest everywhere.
from Poem LXXII, Emily Dickinson
13 | POSTLUDE
_________________________
NOTES
*The title of this movement is taken from Confessions of a Drone Warrior, published in GQ (October 23, 2013),
by Matthew Power.
** The text of this movement is a transcription of an active numbers station, known informally as E11 or Oblique, which has broadcast continuously for over thirty years a female voice reading groups of numbers; this numbers station is purportedly operated now by Agencja Wywiadu (or AW), a Polish intelligence agency. This transcription was distributed by the The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations in 1997.
***The title of this movement is taken from Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do, published in the New York Times (February 23, 2013), by James Dao.
The work takes its title from the British social research organization, Mass-Observation, which aimed to record everyday life in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1937, Mass-Observation controversially paid investigators to anonymously record people's conversation and behavior at work, on the street and at various public occasions including public meetings, sporting, and religious events.
Scored for chorus and percussion sextet, Mass Observation ebbs and flows between various polarities (human voices and percussion instruments, pitched and unpitched sounds, clear and opaque tonalities) over the course of its thirteen movements. There is a ritualistic nature to the overall pacing of the work, reminiscent of a liturgical mass setting. The two groups of musicians are rarely aligned: for much of the piece they watch and listen to one another in silence.
Tarik O’Regan
MASS OBSERVATION
text compiled by Tarik O’Regan
1 | PRELUDE
2 | WATCHING: ARGUS PANOPTES
The mountain sat upon the plain
In his eternal chair,
His observation omnifold,
His inquest everywhere.
from Poem LXXII, published in Poems, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson (1890), by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.
from Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, and Homerica (1914),
by H. G. Evelyn-White (1884 - 1924)
3 | INTERLUDE I
4 | BOUNDLESS INFORMANT: THE INSPECTION PRINCIPLE
To say all in one word, it will be found applicable, I think, without exception, to all establishments whatsoever, in which […] a number of persons are meant to be kept under inspection.
from Panopticon (1791),
by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Dust that wanders, eyeing
(With eyes that hardly glow)
New faces, dimly spying
For friends that come and go.
from Ballade of Dead Friends, published in Children of the night: a book of poems (1910),
by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
It is the most important point, that the persons to be inspected should always feel themselves as if under inspection.
from Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham
5 | INTERLUDE II
6 | PRISM I: WE LOOK THROUGH THEM AT THE WORLD, AND ULTIMATELY STARE BACK AT OURSELVES*
Without lyre, without lute or chorus,
Death a silent pilot comes at last.
From Glukupikros Eros (1881)
by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
And in the drone of the aeroplane the voice of the summer sky murmured its fierce soul. […] Men, women, and children were spotted for a second upon the horizon, and then […] they wavered and sought shade beneath the trees.
It seemed as if all […] had sunk down in the heat motionless and lay huddled upon the ground, but their voices went wavering from them as if they were flames lolling from the thick waxen bodies of candles.
From Kew Gardens, published in the collection Monday or Tuesday (1921),
by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
7 | INTERLUDE III: NUMBERS STATION**
Six. Niner. Zero. Oblique. Fiver. Two.
Attention.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Niner. Three. Zero. Four. Fiver.
Three. Six. Eight. Three. Niner.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four
Attention.
Six. Fiver. Four. Eight. Seven.
Zero. One. Zero. Sixer. Four.
Out.
8 | PRISM II: THEY WITNESS THE CARNAGE***
Voices. Yes, voices. Wordless voices, breaking the silence suddenly with such depth of contentment, such passion of desire, or, in the voices of children, such freshness of surprise; breaking the silence? But there was no silence. […] The voices cried aloud and the petals of myriads of flowers flashed their colours into the air.
from Kew Gardens, Virginia Woolf
9 | INTERLUDE IV
10 | LISTENING I: STILLNESS
I listen to the stillness of you,
My dear, among it all;
I feel your silence touch my words as I talk,
And take them in thrall.
My words fly off a forge
The length of a spark;
I see the night-sky easily sip them
Up in the dark.
from Listening, published in Amores (1916),
by D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
11 | INTERLUDE V
12 | LISTENING II: OBSERVATION OMNIFOLD
The mountain sat upon the plain
In his eternal chair,
His observation omnifold,
His inquest everywhere.
from Poem LXXII, Emily Dickinson
13 | POSTLUDE
_________________________
NOTES
*The title of this movement is taken from Confessions of a Drone Warrior, published in GQ (October 23, 2013),
by Matthew Power.
** The text of this movement is a transcription of an active numbers station, known informally as E11 or Oblique, which has broadcast continuously for over thirty years a female voice reading groups of numbers; this numbers station is purportedly operated now by Agencja Wywiadu (or AW), a Polish intelligence agency. This transcription was distributed by the The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations in 1997.
***The title of this movement is taken from Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do, published in the New York Times (February 23, 2013), by James Dao.