One Note Now is a collective composition assembled one gesture at a time. Each participant contributes a single sound — or a breath — chosen alone and added to a shared work that no one could create alone. It is not music to be performed but a trace of coexistence: dissonance, silence and harmony left to stand together, none above the others, until the work reaches its limit and is sealed.
Title · One Note Now
Artist · A. Bernardini
Year · 2026
Medium · Participatory generative sound composition — browser-based net art
Extent · A single collective work, finite at 10.946 contributions (the 21st Fibonacci number), after which it is sealed and accepts no more
Duration · Cumulative — the sum of all contributed gestures; fixed at completion
Language · English
Each sound is composed on a single screen — a pitch, a two‑dimensional timbre field, a duration and a presence — or given as a breath synthesised from the participant's own anonymous identifier. Nothing is recorded: every contribution is re‑synthesised in the browser from its stored parameters through the Web Audio API. The parameters are the score, fixed forever; the browser is the instrument that performs it. At sealing, a reference recording of the whole work, rendered at a pinned sample rate, is archived alongside the score. The work is delivered as a static site with serverless functions; contributions are held in an append‑only archive.
Each contribution receives a unique alphanumeric code and a SHA‑256 content hash that binds the code to the exact parameters of the gesture — the score from which its sound is performed — a tamper‑evident certificate of presence, delivered to the participant. The complete sequence is preserved in an append‑only mirror with periodic external backups, independent of the live site.
A. Bernardini, One Note Now (2026), participatory generative sound composition. onenotenow.com
Concept, composition engine, and texts by A. Bernardini.
Typography: Cormorant Garamond, with system serif and sans‑serif faces. For curatorial, exhibition, and press enquiries: contact@onenotenow.com.
See also the About, the Manifesto and the Editions & Journal.
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