Hyper Hypo (2025)

for flute, bassoon, piano, electronics, and video

by Apply Triangle Trio

Hyper Hypo is based on sensory and behavioral patterns commonly associated with autism. These include shifts between heightened sensitivity and reduced responsiveness, an intensified focus on small or peripheral details, the use of repetitive actions to maintain a sense of stability, and periods of withdrawal when external input becomes overwhelming. The piece adopts these characteristics as structural and gestural materials. Abrupt changes in density, sustained attention to limited material, recurrent patterns, and extended quiet yet high-tension sections align with these perceptual and behavioral states. The work does not attempt to explain or interpret them, but shapes its musical trajectory according to the fluctuations, transitions, and internal tensions inherent in these patterns.

Each performer has a fixed physical action:
the pianist repeatedly turns their head,
the flutist sways their body from side to side,
and the bassoonist spins a bicycle wheel.
The speed and rhythm of these fixed actions are synchronized with the electronic music.

Gestures/Movement

(Notated gestures)

Bassoonist / Hand

Visual/Video

The video component is built from three visual materials — the treasure box, the light particles, and the bicycle wheel — each corresponding to one performer’s fixed action. Among them, only the spinning of the bicycle wheel remains tightly synchronized with the bassoonist’s action from beginning to end. The motion of the light particles gradually becomes connected to the performer’s movement later in the piece, while the treasure box maintains a more distant relationship with the performer’s action throughout.

These three visual elements maintain a dynamic relationship with the sonic materials while also unfolding along their own independent lines of development, forming parallel layers of connection and separation.

In the November 2025 performance, the piece was presented using a fixed-media and click-track setup. When conditions allow, it is ideal for the work to be performed with a motion-sensor system that triggers both sound and video in real time.