Virtual Pets
As part of the Ossian Ensemble’s Carnival of the Animals concert, Virtual Pets by Huw Belling formed part of a new set of ‘problematized animals’ in pieces written especially for the concert by a variety of composers including such pets as The Serpant, Lab Rats and The Dodo. The updated suite was performed with new narration by Neil Georgeson on Wednesday the 8th of July.
Listen:
The piece carries the following program note:
Virtual pets is a mockery of the insipid electronica of virtual pets. Fun on the surface, but unhalting and eerily unsettled, things go awry as unnatural imperfections disrupt the simulacra. These errata compound and amplify until the ‘pet’ jitters towards an epileptic halt; e-blivion. Replace batteries.
Huw Belling 