To Measure is to Collapse was performed in Piano, Alone in a Room, a series of coded and realtime player piano activations, on March 23, 2024. If interested, you can view the Digital Program.

To Measure is to Collapse simulates an imaginary effect that pollution has on an ordered body through a dual sonification and visualization of historic air pollution data from the days NYC was heavily impacted by the 2023 Nova Scotia wildfires: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 12:00:00 AM Eastern Time to Friday, June 9, 2023 11:00:00 PM Eastern Time.

Bodies, represented through the tradition of dot skeletons, drop sequentially (once per measurement interval) within the measurement window. As the pollution increases–represented by changes in the Air Quality Index–the skeletons’ capacity for distortion increases, and the corresponding notes become more sporadic and disjointed. At their most heavily polluted, the skeletons are no longer identifiable, and are, instead, a collapsed mess of points and lines.

The livestream is avalible to watch on YouTube.