Impossible Roller Coasters

Big things are afoot.

After about a year’s gestation, I have begun to continue my research into impossible roller coasters (and their possible links to music). To recap: last spring, I spent a one week residency at the Arnolfini in Bristol, UK. During my week there, I endeavoured to make a “realistic” roller coaster. I visited the same online forums I used to design roller coasters when I was a young teenager, and tried to hold myself to the same level of technical prowess.

Well, spoiler alert… I couldn’t do it anymore! Somehow my technical capabilities have dwindled. Or I am just not as interested in making realistic roller coasters. I was very lucky though in that a friend and fellow composer/performer Dominic Lash visited me on the final day of my residency. He remarked that, while the “realistic” roller coaster would make a pretty boring score, an impossible roller coaster would make a more interesting one.

I am spending some of this summer making small forays into impossible roller coaster design. I am particularly interested in knots and tangles. It will be very interesting to see where this all leads…!