MUSIQUE CHRONIQUE  reflects on the circumstances that turn illness—and the patient who bears it—into music.

Departing from musical metaphorology in 20th century clinical writings on neurasthenia, Levinas' writing on fatigue, Erik Satie's music and writing, and operatic-philosophical dilemmas of the Word vs. the Voice, the installation stages an encounter between music and illness under the guise of chronicity.

The installation was presented at Jan van Eyck Academie Open Studios 2025. It contains sculptures, a photograph, a receipt, a video installation and a sound installation.

The sonic element of the installation consisted of a 9 hour mix. 
A performance, Symptom Aria, activated it on the Saturday.
An accompanying collection of writings is in progress, fragments of which were read during the Open Studio's Writer's Program (see excerpt below). 

Documentation photography by Romy Finke

I began with fatigue and ended where I began. For this interval I have little to show other than stands. The musical interval beats duration in an instance: this for me approximates fatigue. Erik Satie’s Vexations vexes partly because of its enharmonicity: identical sounds annotated in differential manner highlight the split inherent to harmony itself. This same split was discovered by psychoanalysis to lie at the heart of the subject and the symbolic language that engulfs it. I feel it most acutely whenever I speak about my illness. My illness isn't really: it is contested, hysterical, performative, malingering. It is duration, chronicity, hopelessness. It is music: speech voided of signification; turned che bella voce !, soprano de sentiment, l'homme au petit papier, poet of nothingness. Perverse tune for the work of living and the living that has become work. Who would dare claim fatigue as their pathology? Who can afford not to? 

I began with fatigue and ended with music. This mirrors my professional trajectory from medicine to music. The day after I quit medical residency, I had a rest traced on my forearm. An anticipated conversion, this remains the only visible sign of my disability. The rest is in the lament. You can decide to take my word for it.

MUSIQUE CHRONIQUE  reflects on the circumstances that turn illness—and the patient who bears it—into music.

Departing from musical metaphorology in 20th century clinical writings on neurasthenia, Levinas' writing on fatigue, Erik Satie's music and writing, and operatic-philosophical dilemmas of the Word vs. the Voice, the installation stages an encounter between music and illness under the guise of chronicity.

The installation was presented at Jan van Eyck Academie Open Studios 2025. It contains sculptures, a photograph, a receipt, a video installation and a sound installation.

The sonic element of the installation consisted of a 9 hour mix. 
A performance, Symptom Aria, activated it on the Saturday.
An accompanying collection of writings is in progress, fragments of which were read during the Open Studio's Writer's Program (see excerpt below). 

Documentation photography by Romy Finke

I began with fatigue and ended where I began. For this interval I have little to show other than stands. The musical interval beats duration in an instance: this for me approximates fatigue. Erik Satie’s Vexations vexes partly because of its enharmonicity: identical sounds annotated in differential manner highlight the split inherent to harmony itself. This same split was discovered by psychoanalysis to lie at the heart of the subject and the symbolic language that engulfs it. I feel it most acutely whenever I speak about my illness. My illness isn't really: it is contested, hysterical, performative, malingering. It is duration, chronicity, hopelessness. It is music: speech voided of signification; turned che bella voce !, soprano de sentiment, l'homme au petit papier, poet of nothingness. Perverse tune for the work of living and the living that has become work. Who would dare claim fatigue as their pathology? Who can afford not to? 

I began with fatigue and ended with music. This mirrors my professional trajectory from medicine to music. The day after I quit medical residency, I had a rest traced on my forearm. An anticipated conversion, this remains the only visible sign of my disability. The rest is in the lament. You can decide to take my word for it.