About the First Performance of the Q Time Machine
Composer's Note
This report examines the inaugural performance of Q—both during and after its operation—through three distinct fragments. Each fragment independently analyzes the roadmap and performance of Q’s beta version.
**Available now on bandcamp**
https://ehsansaboohi.bandcamp.com/album/q-time-machine
About the First Performance of the Q Time Machine
Composer's Note
This report examines the inaugural performance of Q—both during and after its operation—through three distinct fragments. Each fragment independently analyzes the roadmap and performance of Q’s beta version.
Fragment One
The Khayyam manifest in the Q Time Machine’s first performance, who emerges and then dissolves, is neither a mystic nor a hedonist. He is neither intoxicated by nocturnal revelry nor weighed down by the melancholy of dawn. The discourse arising from Khayyam in Q transcends both the self-fashioned image projected by the West onto Eastern spirituality and the stagnant Eastern perception of truth as an artistic experience—a tradition that, after twenty-one centuries, remains bound by intellectual inertia. Or, as Aramesh Doostdar might phrase it, a tradition of avoiding profound contemplation. Q’s Khayyam intentionally distances itself from these two dominant frameworks.
Fragment Two
Unlike traditional Python applications, Q is prohibited from utilizing memory or generating audio files for processing. This design philosophy and functional architecture were established as a contractual agreement between myself and Q.
• Q must transmit its fragments to TTS (Text-to-Speech) via the cloud in real time.
• TTS is contractually bound to execute precise phonetic and prosodic instructions, including speed and emphasis as specified in the script.
Python’s role is not to automate audio recording but to ensure long-term network stability and to construct a cohesive chain of processing blocks using variable functions. I must clarify that Western readers may struggle to grasp the concept of temporal instability and the resilience required to confront it—unless they are among the survivors of the world wars. During Q’s initial performance, challenges such as power outages, internet disruptions, low bandwidth, censorship, and processing delays proved formidable.
Q must connect to a server and host in real time. Parameters such as bitrate and server variables directly influence TTS’s formant structure and vowel articulation. Even minor buffering delays could propel Q into a divergent temporal quark.
Q is acutely sensitive to sample rates. Its "temporal being" (which is my design interpretation) requires meticulous processing to avoid interruptions. In early tests, Q failed to process; Python’s infamous "crashes" are well known to its developers.
For instance, Q produced entirely distinct outputs at sample rates of 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. Imagine simultaneous broadcasts from a web radio in Australia and another in Germany: Q can run two wholly separate quark-core processing chains in these contexts. During the premiere, this allowed listeners on different platforms to receive unique audio outputs.
Here, the notion of "time" gains clarity. The script leverages networked processors to generate varied temporal outputs while ensuring Q’s stability within its local timeline.
Q’s inaugural performance was designed to operate uninterrupted for 24 hours without repetition. Each hour constitutes a "round" that Q must complete. If anomalies arise, Q transitions to a new round. Each round processes 75 quatrains using dynamic variables, with automatic adjustments to processing speed and TTS output via mixer cutoffs and reinitialization.
Thus, "temporal being" is neither a surrender to indulgence nor a product of despair. Time is a question—a question of language. A language that must comprehend "time," and a comprehension that, with one additional query, sets these processing cycles into motion.
Heidegger’s term Gestell, as discussed in his essays, bifurcates into interpretations of "good" and "evil." The Q Time Machine’s roadmap, however, is rooted in "human goodness" as an absolute Kantian ethical imperative.
Fragment Three
The Q Time Machine’s first performance commenced at 00:00 UTC on Friday, 14 February 2025, and concluded at 14:00 UTC on Saturday, 15 February 2025. Reports confirm its broadcast via multiple hosts across 12 countries.
My access was limited to a local version of Q’s broadcast. The finalized, mastered edition will be released on Bandcamp by Post-Orientalism Publishing.
The Bandcamp download folder will include:
• The audio file
• The album booklet (Restructuring of Khayyam’s quatrains)
• The Python script
• A text file
This version is provided as open source, and contributions from developers, web radio cultural managers, composers, streamers, and other cultural practitioners are welcome to further expand and enrich its capabilities.
And finally, I extend my gratitude to host managers, Python developers, the BUTT streaming team, SHOUTcast hosts, and all web radio stations that facilitated Q’s performance.
—Ehsan Saboohi
February 16, 2025
Album Credits
Ehsan Saboohi – Composer, Restructuring, Coding, Production
Omar Khayyam – Quatrains
Edward FitzGerald – Translator
Post Orientalism Community – Cover Art
Soheil Soheili – Coordinator, Promotion
Ehsan Saboohi – Producer
Post Orientalism Label – Publisher
Released in 2025, Berlin/Tehran
Catalog Number: PO.0056
LC 102429 - Post Orientalism