Natural Selection is a sound, installation, theater work created and presented in sections between 1995-1999 with a concert version presented in 2003 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The sound composition is developed from a series of spoken/sung texts woven with the amplified sounds of power sources in the common household (electrical sounds, a forced air furnace, rattling plumbing, a coffee maker, a telephone answering machine, etc), These sound elements are combined with three to four instruments (keyboards, two saxophones, and an amplified staircase). The overall installation for Natural Selection, in it’s full installation staging, involves a platform divided, in equal sides, with dried leaves and pea gravel, a network of heating ducts and vents connected to a forced air furnace, an electrical transformer tower, a network of pipes and wiring conduit, a refrigerator that is partially fallen through the floor-surface, a large amplified staircase that leads nowhere, and a bed. For the concert version, a scaled-down version of the amplified staircase and the bed are the only large installation elements included. Many other smaller sound props from the original full-scale performance are used in the concert version.