On the Presence of Water is a sound and image meditation on water as a psychological and spiritual archetype. It was not my intent with this work to explore the sound and image of water as such, indeed no sounds and only a portion of the images in the piece originate with water. Rather I used the contemplation of water-as-symbol as a lens to focus a disparate array of sounds, images, ideas and experiences into a creative work. For the most part, the sound and images were created in parallel with ideas and insights from each medium impacting my work in the other.
The audio composition was developed at the School of Music Computer Center of the University of Washington. Common Music and Csound enhanced with extensions by Professor Richard Karpen of the University of Washington were my primary tools; I created the video at the University of Washington's Center for Advanced Research Technologies in the Arts and Humanities (CARTAH), using Adobe Pre miere to manipulate both video and still images.

Bret Battey (USA) is currently a MDA student in music composition at the University of Washington, where he also completed his Master work. He received a Bachelor of Music in Electronic and Computer Music from Oberlin Conservartory and has worked inManhattan in the Philipp Glass Production Studio and Studio PASS. His works have been presented in the United States, Europe and Asia, including the Korean Society for Electroacoustic Music, the Bourges' Synthese Festival, the Hungarian "Radio Summer" and others.