32 SQUARES explores the boundaries of minimalism through a set of ultra-minimal graphics interpreted by solo players on acoustic and electronic instruments. Each square graphic is projected as large as the wall can accommodate and screened in sync with the corresponding audio. A short set of instructions sets parameters for the players that include how many squares to play and how long to play them.

A single, minimal image can conjure a multiplicity of sonic interpretation, and for continuity I was informed by Morton Feldman in Vertical Thoughts:

A painter will perhaps agree that a colour insists on being a certain size, regardless of his wishes. He can either rely on the colour’s illusionistic elements to integrate it with, say, drawing or any other means of differentiation, or he can simply allow it to ‘be’. In recent years we realise that sound too has a predilection for suggesting its own proportions. In pursuing this thought we find that if we want the sound to ‘be,’ any desire for differentiation must be abandoned. Actually, we soon learn that all the elements of differentiation were pre-existent within the sound itself.

Following Feldman’s premise, players are encouraged to include listening as part of their performance, and to allow sound to speak for itself.