Time, the Magician

Time, the magician (2005) is a collaboration by Hazel Smith and Roger Dean written in the real-time algorithmic image-processing program Jitter. The piece begins with a poem, written by Hazel, on the subject of time: influential on the writing of the poem was Elizabeth Grosz's The Nick of Time. The poem is initially performed solo, but as it progresses is juxtaposed with live and improvised sound which includes real-time and pre-recorded sampling and processing of the voice. The performance of the poem is followed (slightly overlapping) by screened text in which the poem is dissected and reassembled. This screened text is combined in Jitter with video of natural vegetation, and the sound and voice samples continue during the visual display. Both Time, the Magician and Minimal "” along with six other pieces "” appear on the CD-Rom by Hazel Smith and Roger Dean accompanying Hazel Smith's new volume The Erotics of Geography: poetry, performance texts, new media works, Tinfish Press, 2008.