"The balance of terror is never anything but the spectacular slope of a system of deterrence that has insinuated itself from the inside into all the cracks of every day life…deterrence that is at the heart of the media, of the violence without consequences than reigns throughout the world, of the aleatory apparatus of all choices that are made for us." (Baudrillard 1985: 32)

Under pressure is a two-part eight channel sound work. Part A is an eleven-minute conceptual piece, which explores the theme of pressure, in its physical and meta-physical forms. Part B is an eleven-minute electro acoustic piece abstracted from the original work, and is intended to engage the listener in a different mode of listening while maintaining the same context of pressure. The pieces can be listened to together or independently.

Capitalist society is an increasingly pressurised entity. Advertising pressures us to buy, to upgrade, to renew and to dispose of. Media pressurises us to live a certain way, look a certain way, and to think a certain way. Our banks pressurise us to borrow more, mortgage more and somehow pay more back. Our governments direct we behave a certain way, uphold laws and sanction their unjust wars; the axis of evil, the liberation of Iraq, and the impending invasion of Iran; the terror of war, and the war on terror. Is the real terror not the loss of civil liberty through legislation against imaginary civil disobedience? The constant capital need for consumption, increase, growth, profitability, control and success pushes the individual to their limits on a daily basis.