While at the 2011 Open Ears festival ( Canada ), I had the wonderful opportunity and experience of presenting the first fully formed new t-stick composition from the 2010 T-Stick Composition Workshops, entitled packing a lunch! . This music was co-composed/co-developed with the highly frenetic American composer, Patrick Hart. I say the work is 'fully formed', but Patrick and I will continue to develop ideas together toward a different version of packing a lunch! – or perhaps we'll just start something new. I wasn't sure how to understand his title, although in my mind, it conjured up the ordinary and mundane daily tasks we all experience – métro, boulot, dodo. However, the sounds and vigorous playing gestures of packing… are anything but routine or workaday. As the performer (and co-creator), I decided that the performing/dancing of this work should metaphorically represent our unconscious, which claws its way through the trials of everyday existence. In this interpretation, perhaps you'll see the different stages of your daily routines.

For more on the 2010 T-Stick Composition Workshops, go to: dandrewstewart.ca/2010TCW