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Connexus.do I Need Midi to Play Piano Music

Slave Pianos, *Music of the City*, Programme Cover

003-014

Slave Pianos, *Pianology*, Programme Cover

005-006

Slave Pianos, *Slave Chamber: menage a quatre*, Programme Cover

006-042

ANTI-JAZZ

007-018

Slave Pianos, *Caged Uncaged: Unleash the Beats*, Programme Cover

008-020

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Cover

011-049

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Cover

011-062

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Brass*, Programme Cover

013-042

Slave Pianos, *Aperto*, Programme Cover

014-011

Slave Pianos, *A Long Tale with Many Notes*, Programme Cover

015-023

Slave Pianos, *Foreign Knowledge*, Programme Cover

019-010

The Gift - Redaction and Decontamination (Programme cover)

032-005

Tony Clark

016-026

Slave Pianos, *Recitals of Artist's Music and Sound Works*, Programme Text

000-107

Slave Pianos, *Recitals of Artist's Music and Sound Works*, Programme Text

SLAVE PIANOS PRESENT

Recitals of Artist's Music and Sound Works

FIRST KASSEL PERFORMANCE

CONCERT 1

Marco Fusinato
EP in E

Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik
Kiavierduest

Ronnie van Hout (in absentia), Jason Greig, Mark White, Dave Imly, James Greig, Paul Sutherland
(INTO THE VOID)
Bank Roll

CONCERT 2

Jean Tinguely
ReliefMeta-mechanique Sonore 1, 1955

Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Niagara, Jim Shaw
(DESTROY ALL MONSTERS)
Raga
(as performed by Barney McAll)

John Nixon
(ANTI-MUSIC)
Two Greys Becoming 2

CONCERT 3

Daniel Malone
Soundtrack to The Strike Church

Dieter Roth
Der Akkordeon Fluch, 1981-82
(as performed by Barney McAll)

Peter Tyndall
(ANTI-MUSIC)
Slave Guitars 6

CONCERT 4

Katharina Fritsch
Unken (extrait)

George Brecht
Comb Music (Comb Event), 1959-62

Dom de Clario
Pensive Piano Moods from the Opaque

CONCERT 5

Jean Dubuffet
Coq a L'oei1 1961

L Budd (with Ivan Zagni)
Soundtrack to Studies for Existence

Tony Clark
(ANTI-MUSIC)
The Living Rococo (Untitled)

With the Assistance of the Chartwell Trust

Slave Pianos, *Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult) *, Programme Text

Stills
gallery / bookshop / the canteen / digital imaging lab / darkrooms

Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult)

Piano Recital
Tuesday
9,16,23,30 March 1999
6, 13, 20 April 1999
United Kingdom Premiere

1 THOMAS LAWSON
UNTITLED
Performed by Barney McAll

2 JEAN TINGUELY
RELIEF META-MECHANIQUE SONORE 1 (1955)
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

3 MARCO FUSINATO
EP in E (1997)
Arranged by Neil Kelly

4 TONY CLARK
INTERMEZZO
Arranged and performed by Barney McAll

5 L BUDD with IVAN ZAGNI
the soundtrack to STUDIES FOR EXISTENCE
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

**Stills Ltd.**23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1. 1BP Tel: 0131 622 6200 Fax: 0131 622 6201 E-Mail: info@stills.demon.co.uk
Stills is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 63316 Vat No. 502 401414 Scottish Charity No. SCO 14136


Stills
gallery / bookshop / the canteen / digital imaging lab / darkrooms

Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult)

Piano Recital
Wednesday
10, 17, 24, 31 March. 1999
7, 14, 21 April 1999
United Kingdom Premiere

1 JEAN DUBUFFET
COQ a L'OEIL [EXTRAIT] (1961)
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

2 DOMENICO de CLARIO
*PENSIVE PIANO MOODS [FROM THE OPAQUE]
* Transcribed fragments by Neil Kelly

3 BRUCE McLEAN
*LIMPO- WRISTO PONCHO-ROCKO
* Performed by Barney McAll

4 PETER TYNDALL
SLAVE GUITARS 6
Transcribed by Neil Kelly

5GEORGE BRECHT
COMB EVENT (1959-62)
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

6 JOHN NIXON
TWO GREYS BECOMING 2
Arranged by Neil Kelly

**Stills Ltd.**23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1. 1BP Tel: 0131 622 6200 Fax: 0131 622 6201 E-Mail: info@stills.demon.co.uk
Stills is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 63316 Vat No. 502 401414 Scottish Charity No. SCO 14136


Stills
gallery / bookshop / the canteen / digital imaging lab / darkrooms

Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult)

Piano Recital
Thursday
11, 18, 25 March 1999
1, 8, 15, 22 April 1999
United Kingdom Premiere

1 HANY ARMANIOUS and DAVID M. THOMAS
NOVEMBER 1996
Arranged and performed by Barney McAll

2 MIKE KELLEY and JIM SHAW�S DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
RAGA
Transcribed by Barney McAll

3 KATHARINA FRITSCH
UNKEN (1990)
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

4 RONNIE VAN HOUT and INTO THE VOID
BANK ROLL
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

5TONY CLARK
THE LIVING ROCOCCO
Arranged by Neil Kelly

**Stills Ltd.**23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1. 1BP Tel: 0131 622 6200 Fax: 0131 622 6201 E-Mail: info@stills.demon.co.uk
Stills is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 63316 Vat No. 502 401414 Scottish Charity No. SCO 14136


Stills
gallery / bookshop / the canteen / digital imaging lab / darkrooms

Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult)

Piano Recital
A Special Programme of Anti-Music
12, 19, 26 March 1999
2, 9, 16, 23 April 1999
United Kingdom Premiere

1 JOHN NIXON
ALEXANDER BOCK
Arranged and performed by Barney McAll

2 TONY CLARK
THE LIVING ROCOCCO
Arranged by Neil Kelly

3 PETER TYNDALL
SLAVE GUITARS 6
Transcribed by Neil Kelly

4 JOHN NIXON
TWO GREYS BECOMING 2
Arranged by Neil Kelly

5TONY CLARK
INTERMEZZO
Arranged and performed by Barney McAll

**Stills Ltd.**23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1. 1BP Tel: 0131 622 6200 Fax: 0131 622 6201 E-Mail: info@stills.demon.co.uk
Stills is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 63316 Vat No. 502 401414 Scottish Charity No. SCO 14136


Stills
gallery / bookshop / the canteen / digital imaging lab / darkrooms

Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult)

***Piano Recital
Saturday
******6,*** 13, 20, 27 .March 1999
3, 10, 17, 24 April 1999
United Kingdom Premiere

1 JOSEPH BEUYS and NAM JUNE PAIK
IN MEMORIAM GEORGE MACIUNAS (1978)
Transcribed by Neil Kelly

2 ROSS SINCLAIR and THE SOUP DRAGONS
HEAD GONE ASTRAY (1987)
Easily arranged by Barney McAll, Neil Kelly and Stuart Campbell

3 DIETER ROTH
DER AKKORDEON FLUCH (1981-82)
Transcribed by Neil Kelly
Performed by Barney McAll

4 DANIEL MALONE
the soundtrack to the STRIKE CHURCH
Transcribed by Rohan Drape

5 JOHN NIXON
ALEXANDER BOCK
Arranged and performed by Barney McAll

**Stills Ltd.**23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1. 1BP Tel: 0131 622 6200 Fax: 0131 622 6201 E-Mail: info@stills.demon.co.uk
Stills is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No. 63316 Vat No. 502 401414 Scottish Charity No. SCO 14136

Slave Pianos, *An Evening With Slave Pianos*, Programme Text

Darren Knight and Lovers
present

An evening with

SLAVE PIANOS
Celebrating the Launch of the SLAVE PIANOS CD

featuring
live performances by the
QRS Pianomation Research Laboratory Player Piano, the Playola

Programme

SWALLOW 2.10
CREED 0.50
DUBUFFET 0.50
THOMAS 2.00
FUSINATO 6.15
BRECHT 0.08
LAWSON 2.00
TYNDALL 5.00
BEUYS/PAIK 0.50
KERSELS 3.00
NIXON 2.30
KELLEY 3.30
DE CLARIO 3.00
FRITSCH 2.00
CLARK 5.00
TINGUELY 2.40
MCLEAN 6.00
INTERMEZZO 4.30
BANK ROLL 3.00
BLOK 3.50
STRIKE CHURCH 2.40
BOURGEOIS 3.10
SINCLAIR 4.05
BUDD 0.25
ROTH 1.40

Artworkers: Danius Kesminus and Michael Stevenson
Recompositions and transcriptions by Rohan Drape and Neil Kelly
With performances and interpretatons by Barney McAll

The Music of the City

003-009 003-009

Slave Pianos, *Music of the City*, Programme Text

Slave Pianos in association with The Histrionics present

THE MUSIC OF THE CITY

Recitals of Artists' Music and Sound Works

Opening night programme Darren Knight Gallery 6p.m. August 6 1999, 840 Elizabeth St., Waterloo Sydney


Slave Pianos live performance by the QRS Pianomation Research Laboratory Player Piano, the Playola. Recompositions/arrangements and transcriptions by Rohan Drape and Neil Kelly with performances and interpretations by Barney McAll.

artist work


Richard Swallow The Operator
Martin Creed Work No 117
Jean Dubuffet Coq a L'oeil
David McThomas & Harry Armonious November 1996
Marro Fusinato EP in E
George Brecht Comb Piece
Thomas Lawson Untitled
Peter Tyndall (Slave Guitars)
Joseph Beuys & Nam June Paik In Memoriam George Maciunas Martin Kersels Fax Machine John Nixon (Two Greys Becoming)
Michael Kelley (Destroy All Monsters) Raga
Domenico de Clario From The Opaque
Katharina Fritsch Unken (extrait)
Anthony Clark (The Living Rococo) Untitled
Jean Tinguely Relief Meta-mechanique Sonore 1
Bruce McLean's (Videor Diodes) Limpo-Wristo Pontho-Rocko
Anthony Clark (Intermezzo) 7
Ronnie Van Hont (Into The Void) Bank Roll
John Nixon (The Ballet) Alexander Blok pt 1
Daniel Malone & Martin Popperwell The Strike Church
Louise Bourgeois Otte
Ross Sinclair (with The Soup Dragons) Head Gone Astray
Lillian Budd Studies for Existence
Dieter Roth Der Akkordeon Fluch


Slave Chamber: menage a quatre present the world premiere of Five Pieces for String Quartet recomposition/arrangement/transcription by Rohan Drape & Neil Kelly

mvt artist work


I William Viola Buried Secrets 1995 II Solver (J.Nixon, M.Fusinuto, S.Bram, R.Nolan) 3, 1997 III Gabriel Orozco Ligne d'Abandon, 1993 IV Kurt Merz Schwitters Ursonate 1922-32 V The Gobbler (M.Kelley, P.McCartney, A.Byington, C.Jamie, D.Muller) Lazy Siren 1998

                              on  is                          

Violin 1 Romano Crivici Violin 2 Jacob Plooigh Viola Rudolph Crivici Cello Marcus Hartstein

dedicated to Elektra String Quartet

The Didgeridoo performance of works by Circle Records recording artists has been cancelled due to discretion exercised in playing this material in the presence of the authors during EPW ceremonial orders


Continuing at The Iron Duke Hotel (Cnr Botany Rd & McEvoy St., Alexandria) at B.30p.m. David M Thomas' Oviae Yone, then The Hiatrionics present for the first time in Sydney ADAWO, Australia's first Martin Creed tribute band. Set List:

  • Hello (hello)
  • 1234
  • Thirty Thirty
  • Short G
  • The New Instrumental One
  • Short C
  • Feeling Blue
  • Short G
  • Up + Down
  • Circle
  • Short G
  • Low
  • High
  • 30 Seconds With The Lights Of f
  • 1 - 100
  • Short G
  • 101 - 200
  • Short G THE
  • Long C
  • One Whole Song
  • Short G
  • x
  • Short C
  • Nothing
  • Start Middle End
  • Short C
  • The usual First One
  • Happy Man

as is


Martin Creed Vocals John Campbell Martin Creed guitar Craig Fermanis Keiko Owada bass Dave O'Brien Adam McEwen drums Tommy Zdanius

Exclusively available through Darren Knight Gallery

from is


SLAVE PIANOS A sampler C.D. LOIN GROIN Pneumatic Drill C.D. SLAVE EDITIONS Boxed set of Slave Pianos Scores SLAVE EDITIONS Bound set of Slave Chamber scores ADAWO Offset poster

Slave Pianos, *Pianology*, Programme Text

005-004 005-004 005-004

Slave Pianos, *Recitals of Visual Artists' Music and Sound Art*, Programme

SLAVE PIANOS

recitals of visual artists' music and sound art

The SLAVE PIANOS repertoire is performed by the QRS Pianomation Research Laboratory Player Piano, the Playola. The Pianomation Reproducing System is a MIDI equipped playback system for acoustic pianos. Playback occurs when MIDI performance commands are sent from the controller; this master slave configuration instructs the piano in matters of note endurance, levels of expression as well as sustain & soft pedaling commands. Pianomation strictly controls each piano key with 127 levels of expression across 16 channels. Pianomation can endure up to 32 note polyphony. The Pianomation Reproducing System is supremely capable of summoning any piano to play obediently, unquestioningly, flawlessly, submissively and humbly.

PIANOLOGY 1955-98

Richard SWALLOW, Operator, 1998
Australian, sculptor b. 1974 San Remo

Martin CREED, Work No. 117, 1995 Scottish, sculptor b. Wakefield 1966

Jean DUBUFFET, Coq a L'oeil, 1961
French, painter b. Le Havre 1901, d. 1985

DM THOMAS + Hany ARMANIOUS, November 1996, 1997
Australian, painter b. Sydney 1968
Australian, sculptor b. Egypt 1962

Marco FUSINATO, EP in E, 1997
Australian, painter b. Melbourne 1964

George BRECHT, Comb Piece (Comb Event), 1959-62
American, sculptor b. Halway, Oregon 1925

Thomas LAWSON, Untitled, 1981
Scottish, painter b. Scotland 1950

Peter TYNDALL as Slave Guitars, 6, 1981
Australian, painter b. Melbourne 1951

Joseph BEUYS + Nam June PAIK, In Memoriam George Maciunas, 1978
German, sculptor b. Krefeld 1921, d. 1986
Korean, sculptor b. Seoul 1932

Martin KERSELS, Fax Machine, 1995
American, sculptor b.

John BARLEYCORN as Two Greys Becoming, 2, 1981
Australian, painter b. Sydney 1949

Mike KELLEY with Destroy All Monsters, The End of Time, 1995
American, sculptor b. Wayne, Michigan 1954

Domenico de CLARIO, From The Opaque, 1994-5
Australian, sculptor b. Trieste 1947

Katharina FRITSCH, Unken, 1990
German, sculptor b. Essen 1956

Anthony CLARK (The Living Rococo), Untitled, 1981
Australian, painter b. Canberra 1954

Jean TINGUELY, Relief Meta-mechanique Sonore I, 1955
Swiss, sculptor b. Fribourg 1925, d.1989

Bruce McLEAN with Harvey Mangolds Vidor Diodes, Limpo-Wristo Poncho-Rocko, c1980
Scottish, painter b. Glasgow 1944

Ronnie van HOUT with Into The Void, Bank Roll, 1998
New Zealand, sculptor b. Christchurch 1962

Daniel MALONE + Martin POPPERWELL, The Strike Church, 1990
New Zealand, sculptor b.
New Zealand, painter b.

Louise BOURGEOIS, Otte, 1995
American, sculptor b. Paris 1911

Ross SINCLAIR with the Soup Dragons, Head Gone Astray, 1987
Scottish, sculptor b.

Lillian BUDD (Merryln Tweedie), Studies For Existence, 1998
New Zealand, sculptor b. Christchurch 1953

Diter ROT (Dieter Roth), Der Akkordeon Fluch, 1981-2
Swiss, sculptor b. Hannover 1930 d.1998

Tony OURSLER, Trance Emissions, 1977-83
American, sculptor b. New York, New York 1957

Chris BURDEN, Velvet Water, 1974
American, sculptor b. Boston, Massachusetts 1946

Louise LAWLER, Bird Calls, 1972 American, photographer b. Bronxville, New York 1947

John BALDESSARI, Throwing a Ball Once to get 3 Melodies & 15 Chords, 1973
American, photographer b. National City, California 1931

David WOJNAROWICZ with 3 Teens Kill 4, Hunger, 1981
American, painter b. Red Bank, New Jersey, d. 1992

PIANOLOGY: a history of slavery 1955-1998

005-007 005-007

Slave Pianos, *Slave Chamber: menage a quatre*, Programme Text

slave chamber: menage a quatre

SLAVE PIANOS
¡¡EMANCIPATE THE DISSONANCE!!

Thursday December 2 [opening]
Lombard-Freid Projects
470 Broome Street
NY 10013

Slave Chamber: menage a quatre

FLUX Quartet perform

[four or five pieces for string quartet]

II SOLVER 3 1997
I Bill VIOLA buried secrets 1995
IV Kurt Merz SCHWITTERS ursonate 1922-32
V the GOBBLER lazy siren 1998

George MACIUNAS In memoriam Adriano Olivetti 1961

[string quartet no 2.]

I Christian MARCLAY one thousand cycles 1981
II Jean TINGUELY Hegel 1988
III Martin KIPPENBERGER new york - auschwitz 1979
IV Marcel DUCHAMP musical erratum 1913

violin Tom Chiu
violin Cornelius Dufallo
viola Kenji Bunch
cello Darrett Adkins

As graduates of the prestigious Julliard School, FLUX formed their string quartet in 1995 and have already established their regular presence at the Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art and the Knitting Factory, Substation and the Landon Gallery. As well as their exemplary performances of the modern string quartet repertoire, FLUX have uncovered exciting new composers and collaborations with musicians from other musical disciplines, including Alice Cooper, DJ Spooky, The Who and Ornette Coleman. The FLUX performance/collaboration with SLAVE CHAMBER brings together their interest in the history of shared art/music traditions.

One of the most dynamic young musicians of today, TOM CHIU has received great acclaim from The New York Times, the Village Voice, and the STRAD Magazine among others. Frequently premiering new works by the likes of Baley, Scelsi and Nancarrow with seasoned new music ensembles like Continuum and the New Music Consort, he also frequently collaborates with influential conceptualists in New York, including microtonalists JoHnny Reinhard and Virgil Moorefield, and experimental dancer Eun-Me Ahn. He can be heard on recordings on the Asphodol, CRI and Tzakik labels with artists ranging from Ornette Coleman to DJ Spooky. A noted Composer as well, Chiu has received grants from the meet-the Composer Foundation. Holding degrees in music and chemistry from the Juilliard School and Yale.

As winner of the 1994 Artists International Auditions, CORNELIUS DUFALLO was presented in his New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall, where he was hailed as a violinist of extraordinary talent. He has also won First Prize in the 1996 Sorantin National Music Competition. His recent engagements include those at Alice Tully Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium and the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace as part of the American Landmark Festivals. Away from New York he has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, the Holland Music Sessions, andthe Music By the Red Sea Festival in Israel. A Morse Teaching Fellow at Juillard School, Cornelius Dufallo is a doctoral candidate who has worked with Massao Kawasaki and famed violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay.

As winner of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, cellist DARRETT ADKINS will make his debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic later this year. He will also make debuts with the North Carolina Symphony, and the Orchestra of St Luke's in Alice Tully Hall. An avid chamber musician, he has appeared throughout the Americas and Europe with such groups as the Taller Instrumentale of Spain, the Lincoln Center Chamber Players and the CORE Ensemble. He is also a frequent recitalist, particularly on contemporary music series such as Houston's SYZGY, Spokane's Zephr and New York's Summergarden festivals. The release of his recording of duos for violin and cello (with violinist Gil Morgenstern) is schedualed for early 1999. He has recently been appointed to the faculties of the Encore School for Strings and the Juilliard School (assistant faculty).

KENJI BUNCH enjoys a distinguised career as both a violinist and a composer. Recently beginning his tenure as the composer-in-residence for Young Concert Artists, he is emerging as one of today's most exciting young composers. His music has been played by the Omaha Symphony, the New Juillard Ensemble, and the Ahn Trio. Recent commissions have included those for the Orchestra of St Luke's, Fear No Music, and the New York Woodwind Soloists. A CD of his Fantasia, featuring Violinist Ittai Shapira and the English Chamber Orchestra, is due out on EMI late this winter. As a violinist, Kenji Bunch performs regularly with Continuum, the Craftbury Chamber Players and the Perks Dance Music Theater. He has recently appeared as the principal violinist with the Philharmonic Virtuosi as well as with the Orpeus Chamber Orchestra.

Artists performed

BILL VIOLA (b.1951, New York, US) had an early interest in experimental music that developed via the soundtracks to his pioneering video installations. On study trips to Indonesia and the Pacific Viola made recordings of traditional music. As ethnographer of universal human experience, notions of ritual - such as the rites of passage - have themselves become the focus of his own work which has diverse roots in Sufism, Christian mysticism and Zen Buddhism. The acoustic potential of sound in space lead him to explore the sonic characteristics of Gothic cathedrals, Greek amphitheatres and ancient architecture. Viola uses the acoustic properties of site such as reverberance to envelop the viewer in a total environment.

MIKE KELLEY (b. 1954, Wayne, Michigan, US) became aware of Fluxus, composers Harry Parch, New York Minimalist LaMonte Young, the noise music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the free jazz of Sun Ra and the Chicago Art Ensemble while enrolled at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the early 1970's. 'Destroy All Monsters,' a band he co-founded in the mid 1970's was linked to the influencial ironic proto - punk bands of the Detroit area. Through non-traditional instrumentation, predominantly vacuum cleaners and squeeze toys the band blended experimental techniques, particularly noise with pop exploring links with free jazz, radical politics and rock and roll counter-culture as a site for social experimentation. Since this time Kelley generated numerous musical collaborations with other artists working within the rock idom, some as one of performances others as working bands.

PAUL MCCARTHY (b. 1945, Salt Lake City, Utah, US) developed his musical interests initially through the Destruction Arts Symposium in London which included composers such as Gustav Metzger, Wolf Vostell and Ralph Ortiz. In particular his interest lay in the piano smashing performances that reportably inspired The Who's guitar wrecking stage antics. Additionally McCarthy followed the works of the beat generation, the music of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

JOHN BARLEYCORN (b. 1939, Sydney, Aust) established his musical path via an awareness of the punk music scene from the mid 1970's. His retrieval of the DIY attitude first associated with punk lead him to develop Anti-Music, an umbrella term for a number of anonymous experimental music/art recording groups. Anti-Music showed the influence of Pere Ubu's first LP ('The Modern Dance') along with Futurist, Dada and film music. Solver, was founded by Nixon in 1997, named after a commercial brand of paint he used when executing monochrome paintings. Using classical rock instrumentation the noise music produced maintains the vitality of punk's energy but is mediated by the sound excursions of bands like Sonic Youth and by what could be called musique concrete, a 'truth to materials' approach which disavows all musical virtuosity. The music develops as free improvisation, each track being only briefly considered prior to recording.

MARCO FUSINATO (b. 1964, Melbourne, Aust) began composing from his interests in rock, experimental and noise music. He sites the early works of Glen Branca and the New York no-wave scene as being particularly important to his practice. Fusinato has developed a repertoire that investigates the harmonic relationship between music and colour (pitch and hue). To date his compositions have concentrated on the primacy of the E chord and red, its harmonic equivalent hue. These constant wavelengths - aural and ocular - under amplification and feedback expand or cancel nodal/anti-nodal characteristics thereby creating kinaesthetic interference.

KURT MERZ SCHWITTERS (b. 1887, Hanover, Deut, d. 1948, London) was the great lyrical composer of Dada. He made music from the incidental social intercourse heard on the street; the city being the contemporary trace of every living moment. His use of random events and verbal phrases clearly owes much to Marinetti's Futurist theatre. His major opus, the Ursonate 1922-32 composed for solo voice, is grand opera, mechanical Wagner. The sonata consists of four movements; an introduction, an end, and a cadence in the fourth movement. Although Schwitters was very specific about articulation, phrasing and rhythm he conceded that as with any printed music, many interpretations were possible.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY (b. 1955, San Rafael, California) emerged from the community of concept-orientated sound artists active in the late 1970's. With fluxus punk and no wave as his precedent Marclay was drawn to the turntable as the central form of instrumentation defined by the DJ musicians of the early 1980's. Marclay's personalised approach to the turntable and its attendant vinyl is very much that of the structuralist/materialist. By contrast Marclay's vinyl collages (cut up records reglued together ) and his 'record topographique' ( modified with paint and other textured materials ) redefine the very notion of what a vinyl sound recording can be. Marclay also works with prepared turntables - these customised instruments allow him to create and improvise his music to a much more personalised degree. One Thousand Cycles (1981), contains rhythms created by the process of cutting vinyl records into pieces and reconfiguring them in different combinations. The stylus tracing over each vinyl shard amplifies not only the sounds of the original recording but the rhythmic pop as it jumps unpredictably between cuts. Groove (1982), was created from loops recorded from multiple copies of the same seven inch single. They were composed directly on to vinyl by sticking small dot stickers onto the record which causes the needle to skip.

MARCEL DUCHAMP (b. 1887, Blainville, France, d. Neuilly, France, 1968) Musical Erratum of 1913, is the first specific example of the exploitation of chance to arrive at what might be described as a musical Readymade. The composition itself is in effect the application of Lewis Carroll's recipe for chopping up an existing sentence and mixing its parts. Composed with his sisters Yvonne and Magdeleine during a New Year's visit to Rouen, Duchamp recalled this event in 1951 as follows: "Each one of us drew as many notes out of a hat as there were syllables in the dictionary definition of the word imprimer [empreinte], picked by chance." The notes were inserted in the score in the order drawn, it is thought that Duchamp's sisters who were both musicians simply cut up a piano score to obtain the requisite seventy-five notes. Writing on John Cage and his circle, Henry Cowell points out several interesting precedents for this procedure: "Various combinations of chance and choice, preestablished or improvised, are not without respectable musical precedent, in the tala and raga systems of India, and possibly, on a less serious plane, in the music of Mozart. Mozart is said to have composed a set of contra-dances in which dice are to be thrown to determine the order in which the measures are to appear...(He) composed and set down all the measures that might be called for by the dice; a typical collection of opening measures for the first cast, a typical set of second measures for the second cast, and so on." In the esoteric tradition, music is an allegory for the synthesis of polarities, the union of opposites thus we may recognise in Musical Erratum a sacred ceremony-the hierosgamos-that involves two archetypal polarities: the Virgin (represented here by Duchamp's two sisters) and the Bachelor (the composer of the music).

JEAN TINGUELY (b. 1955, Fribourg, d. 1989) from his first musical experiments in 1955 Tinguely's machines were constructed as much for their sonic potential as their kinetic and sculptural properties. Since a silent engine is an engineering impossibility, Tinguely composed with the inherent sounds of mechanisation exploiting their expressive characteristics multifariously. This approach shows the influence of Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrete and Luigi Russolo's notion of the revival of music through noise explained in his manifesto 'The Art of Noises'. Tinguely orchestrated a system for sound imagery, a dramatic aural visualisation that enhanced sculptural motifs. His early percussive compositions were produced with metal hammers striking at irregular intervals on resonators: every day objects retrieved from the street, glasses and bottles, tuna fish and sardine cans. He continued to explore the 'concrete music' elicited from ordinary, non-musical objects, as well as sounds produced by more conventional instruments, including electronic ones such as those found in his monumental musical objects of the 1960's.

MARTIN KIPPENBERGER (b. 1953, Dortmund, Germany, d. Vienna, 1997) came to prominence in the 1970's through the radical extremes of the punk music scene. Kippenberger's oeuvre embraces found sound as well as traditional jazz and rock structures. More significantly he elevated the miming form known as karaoke by developing 'cover' or 'tribute' performances to create his own 'rogue' compositions. By arranging diverse musical forms such as jazz standards and sound art he positioned them in such a way as to highlight their equality as forms of musical expression. Kippenberger's position within musical culture is complex and one that has had him assume various roles from manager to performer, promoter to mimic. In Berlin he ran the famous S.O. 36 bar which became a venue for films and concerts including performances by Lydia Lunch, Wire and Adam and the Ants. He also founded 'The Grugas', a punk band, with Christine Hahn and Eric Mitchell. Disillusioned with the irreverant hothouse scene in 'alternative' Berlin he moved to Hamburg and began to intensivly collaborate on various musical compositions with Albert Oehlen, Georg Herold and Werner Butner. Compositions such as 'The Girl Who Can't Dance Says the Band Can't Play', embraced the process of musical performance where mastery of any instrument became irrelevant in the culture of forming a band, performing and arranging gigs.

Slave Pianos, *Slave Chamber: menage a quatre*, Programme Text

006-041 006-041

The Vibrational Liquid of Improvisation

007-017

Slave Pianos, *The Vibrational Liquid of Improvisation*, Programme Text

Slave Pianos in association with
Barney McAll & THE ANTI-JAZZ BEN-tet present

The Vibrational Liquid of Improvisation

From the Real Book of Visual Artists Music and Sound Works [^1]

[^1]: plus Matt Finish


"Dancing to Architecture"

Start,
A 4/4 beat
the bass a whiteboard marker on fibrous paper
soaking deep on the 2 and 4, countered by a
tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik-tik tickling the hairs
on the back of your hand.

Ribcage pounding stands for
six bars
then is joined by a whale-cicada whistle
leaving a space for guitar and keyboard
entwining on-off, on-off, off-on
and so on.

Bells grow ears to hear themselves.
Steam hisses on the 3
and in the distance
the engine of a '78 model Datsun 200B fails to turn over.
Bass ink sinks deeper
and the guitar flirts in and around
darting between and underneath
a curtain of soud
that parts for the singer.

Music gathers around her ankles,
caresses her hips and elbows.
A melody comes to rest on her wrist.
She considers it, sparkling like a
bracelet, now serious, now cheeky,
now trilling, now humming.

She smiles and frowns.
Her diaphragm shifts upward.
The melody alights from her fingers.
Alveoli expand and breath collects
and the whale-cicada-guitar-bass
drapes over her,
hiding from her direct vision,
she sings.

The bass acknowledges.
The engine stirs the brew
and the singer retreats behind the curtain.
A pattern is established, a loop of rhythms and melodies.
Pulsing like steel, muscular like a tree, delicate like nerve endings it slowly and steadily withdraws from memory.
repeating 'til fade.

You press play, and it begins again.

Adam Ford, 1998.


"They Know Not What They Do" (jc)

They dont no why they're here. Ben Monder never arsed Lee Konitz why he's ere & he never arsed Marc Johnson neither. Ben Perowsky never arsed Dave Douglas nor Chris Potter. Ben Street never arsed Roswell Rudd, Clark Terry nor Jimmy Guiffre. None of them nose why is ere or why they aint playin jAZz or when they became bent, or how. For Gods sake why? Why me? To what purpose? Why here in New York? But THY WILL BE DONE (jc) (ow you say it in ewish?).They don't no coz it woz all arranged by Barney McAll hoo aint ear neither & hoo never arsed Billy Harper or Dewey Redman for permission coz he's in far away ozzieland in absentia & he aint playin jAZz neither.

A...Z Melbourne ANTI©opyright 1999


Barney McAll (in absentia) : slave piano
with The ANTI-JAZZ BEN-tet
Ben Monder: guitar
Ben Street: bass
Ben Perowsky: drums

WILLIE COLE (American, sculptor b. 1955)
Carousel 1996.

YOKO ONO (Japanese, fiuxist b. 1933)
Walking on thin ice 1981.

STEPHEN PRINA (American, photographer b. 1954)
No one calls me friend 1997.

JOHN BARLEYCORN as THE BALLET (Australian, painter b. 1949)
Alexander Blok Pt. 1. 1981.

DAVID BYRNE (American, composer)
Artists Only 1978.

MATT MOFFITT A.K.A. MATT FINISH (Australian band b. circa 1980)
Short Note 1981.

LAURIE ANDERSON (American, storyteller b. 1947)
It's not the bullet that kills you-it's the hole (for Chris Burden) 1976.


"No part of the world is not scoured for materials, and not all that is procured is included. Lying on the editing room floor for this particular manifestation of the SLAVE PIANOS project are some DIY-quality recordings of soundworks by Wojnarowicz and Longo which were omitted only after a heated row. This material deserves to be brought to the attention of the tiny elite the SLAVES are serving. I think Ted Joans would be proud of SLAVE PIANOS' effort. After all, writers have described Ted as a bad influence on Charlie Parker; work that out!!!"

Julian Millie, Melbourne, 1999.

Slave Pianos, *Caged Uncaged: Unleash the Beats*, Programme Text

008-023 008-023 008-023

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Text

011-057

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Text

011-058

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Text

011-059

"The great corrupters of the human race, the aesthetes and artists, have destroyed the stern bridges along that way and replaced them with a huge dose of sugar-sweet opium – art and beauty." Konstantin Medunetskii, Vladimir Stenberg, Georgii Stenberg. _The Constructivists Address the World_, Moscow, January 1922

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Labour*, Programme Text

011-060

Slave Pianos, *Non-Objective Brass*, Programme Text

SLAVE PIANOS
INTERNATIONALE BIENNALE 2000
AUSTRALIAN PAVILION

NON-OBJECTIVE BRASS

ANTI-MUSIC performed by
The Burley Griffin Brass Band
Canberra School of Music Brass Ensemble
Thomas Burge (director)

Wednesday 26 July, 2000
North End – Main Foyer
The National Gallery of Australia
Parkes Place Canberra 2600


PROGRAM

NIXON (as The Clock)
Red + Black 1981

CLARK (as The Living Rococo)
Untitled 1981

TYNDALL (as Slave Guitars)
6 1981

John McDONALD
Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia
Introduction

Professor David WILLIAMS
Director, Canberra School of Art
Opening Address

HARRIS
Australian traditional

FUSINATO
EP in E 1997


NIXON
(b. 1939, Sydney)

Nixon established his musical path via an awareness of the punk music scene from the mid 1970's. His retrieval of DIY attitude first associated with punk lead him to develop Anti-Music, an umbrella term for a number of anonymous collaborative music/art recording groups. Since 1979 Nixon has produced a prolific number of sound cassettes, in more recent years founding the recording label, Circle Records, with fellow artist Julian Dashper. The music recorded is best described as experimental (rock) with a strong leaning towards non-musicianship. Other influences include Pere Ubu's first LP ('The Modern Dance') along with Futurist, Dada and film music. In 1997 he founded SOLVER a visual artists project group dedicated to the exploration of musical form. Using classical rock instrumentation, the noise music produced maintains the vitality of punk's energy but is mediated by the sound excursions of bands like Sonic Youth and by what could be called musique concrète - a 'truth to materials' approach which disavows all musical virtuosity. The music develops as free improvisation, each track being only briefly considered prior to recording.

CLARK
(b. 1954, Canberra)

Clark was a founding participator in the activities of Anti-Music beginning in 1979. His involvement coincided with a renaissance in his own art practice brought about through an interest in classicism. With Nixon he began to explore operatic forms which Clark described as Anti-Music/opera. Clark initiated operas in Latin although he had never studied the language. This curious practice could be explained as the linguistic equivalent to Anti- Music's stated preference for non-musicianship. By using the intonation of Latin as a shell devoid of meaning, Clark revealed a new musical form that distorted classical models. Similarly he performed existing musical compositions with only the most basic knowledge of notation.

TYNDALL
(b. 1951, Melbourne)

Tyndall's interest in music crystallised in 1974, a time when he began to lose faith in abstract painting as a suitable base for his art practice. Through composers such as John Cage he became fluent in cryptic Oriental thought - brief but contained wisdom that constructed a world view grounded in simple, everyday life. From his home at Bonza View, Hepburn Springs in Victoria he became involved in the Melbourne music scene of the late 1970's. During this time Tyndall performed his Slave Guitars of the Art Cult, a sound/performance piece that was a direct working out of his conceptual art practice. In partnership with Nixon and Clark et al, he participated in the various activities of 'Anti Music' and contributed his Cagean notions of chance, structure and everyday life in the associated newsletter 'Pneumatic Drill'.

HARRIS
(b. 1930, Perth)

Harris established himself in London during the swinging sixties. His multi-disciplinary approach encompassed painting performance and song as children's entertainment for film and television. The Rolf Harris Show, broadcast extensively on British Commonwealth television from 1969, presented a range of performative acts varying from musical repertoire scored for voice and other vernacular instrumentation. Most notable was his 'wobble board', a thin wooden sheet which oscillates kinetically producing rhythmic accompaniment. Harris' faux-naive appropriations and recuperations of Indigenous and folk Australian, nationalist, masculinist and 'pop' themes were worked into an intermedia variety concert format, placing him with Bartok and Shostakovich in the mainstream Modern European tradition of progressive pan-cultural assimilation, with refracted yet ultimately determinant political reference.

FUSINATO
(b. 1964, Melbourne)

Fusinato began composing from his interests in rock, experimental and noise music. He sites the early works of Glen Branca and the New York nowave scene as being particularly important to his practice. Fusinato has developed a repertoire that investigates the harmonic relationship between music and colour (pitch and hue). His concentration on the chord of E parallels his signature red palette. Fusinato's composition Mono was performed with fellow artists for ten electric guitars. With Nixon he has collaborated in several recording groups include SOLVER and SCALA. His music drafts a formal/conceptual framework for improvised electric guitar performance.


ON ANTI-MUSIC
THESE GROUPS ARE SEEN PRIMARILY AS
RECORDING GROUPS. ROOMS IN
HOUSES/BORROWED EQUIPMENT/AD HOC
PROCEDURES/THE USE OF NON-HEIRARCHICAL
(sic) (UNORTHODOX) MUSICAL PROCESSES/AND
THE USE OF TAPE AS AN INSTRUMENT IN
ITSELF.
EACH GROUP IS CONCERNED WITH DIFFERENT
ASPECTS OF ANTI-MUSIC, ALL USE 'PRIMATIVE'
(sic) MUSICAL EQUIPMENT AND CASSETTE
RECORDING EQUIPMENT. CASSETTES ARE USED
FOR THEIR IMMEDIACY AND AVAILABILITY AND
LOW COST. PRODUCTION AND EDITING ARE
KEPT MINIMAL. SUCH STRATEGIES/USES ARE
SEEN AS POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY
PROGRESSIVE IN THAT CONTROL OF THE
MEANS OF PRODUCTION AND THE FINAL
PRODUCT ARE MAINTAINED BY EACH GROUP.
ANTI-MUSIC IS COLLECTIVES/CONTINUING
GROUPS/ONE OFF VENTURES.
ANTI-MUSIC USES SIMPLE, PRIMITIVE SKILLS
ESTABLISHING THE BROADEST BASE FOR
HARSH SOUND/POETIC SOUND.
ANTI-MUSIC IS AN INDUSTRIAL FOLK MUSIC.
ANTI-MUSIC IS OUR LOGO FOR PRACTICE.
ANTI-MUSIC CAN POTENTIALLY INCLUDE AND
(sic) SOUND /NOISE WITHIN ITS PRACTICE.
FREE RHYTHEM (sic) + SOUND + EXPRESSION
FROM (sic) 'IMPOSED' ORTHODOX BOUNDARIES.
ANTI-MUSIC IS FORGED FROM THE GIVEN
CULTURE WE LIVE IN (AUSTRALIA/THE
WORLD/HISTORY/PRACTICE/COMMUNITY).


Slave Pianos is a preservation society devoted to the collection, analysis, performance and recomposition of works in sound by visual artists. Founded in 1998 by Danius Kesminas, Michael Stevenson, Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape, associate members include Barney McAll and Anthony Pateras.

Slave Pianos seeks to broaden the knowledge, appreciation and understanding of sound works by establishing an audio archive of visual artists' recordings. Original material from the archive has been re-composed, arranged and transcribed for piano, string quartet, jazz ensemble, rock band, computer, DJ, brass-band and other ensembles. SLAVE PIANOS is represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.

Slave Pianos, *Aperto*, Programme Text

014-009

Slave Pianos, *Aperto*, Programme Text

Songs of Life ::
exposition/recitals of artists' music and sound works

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
and
SLAVE PIANOS
present

Aperto 2000

Graeme Leak :: electronics/percussion

DJ Shake'n'Bake :: turntables

part of the Slave Pianos International Biennale 2000

Monday 17 July 2000, 6:30 p.m.

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
Dallas Brooks Drive
South Yarra, Victoria, 3141


PROGRAMME ::

Martin KIPPENBERGER
for KAT midi controller, AKAI sampler, and acoustic percussion.

Filippo Tommaso MARINETTI
for KAT midi controller, AKAI sampler, and acoustic percussion.

Martin CREED for KAT midi controller and AKAI sampler.

Hermann NITSCH for two turntables

Peter TYNDALL as Slave Guitars for two turntables

Lawrence WEINER/Jennifer HOLZER/+ for two turntables, KAT midi controller, and AKAI sampler

Christoper BURDEN for two turntables, KAT midi controller, and AKAI sampler

SLAVE ARCHIVE (extrait) for two turntables, KAT midi controller, AKAI sampler, and acoustic percussion


NOTES ::

Graeme Leak is an acclaimed percussionist and experimental composer whose sound works are widely performed throughout the world. For this performance Mr Leak has studied the vast Slave Archive and painstakingly constructed a virtual instrument that is played via the KAT Midi Controller. His extensive touring will next see him perform at the Edinburgh Festival.

DJ Shake'n'Bake is a hip hop turntablist currently working with Australian band The Avalanches. He was a finalist in the 1999 International Turntablists Federation Championships. For this performance Mr DeKruz will cut breaks from a set of vinyl acetates that have been especially pressed for the occasion.

SLAVE PIANOS is an organisation devoted to the collection, analysis, performance, and recomposition of sound work by visual artists. In the last year SLAVE PIANOS have presented exhibitions and performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Glasgow, Kassel, New York, Los Angeles, St Petersburg, and Moscow; and have collaborated with DJ Olive, DJ Kuya, the Flux String Quartet, the Krasnyi Quartet, the Elektra String Quartet, the DeFLOCKeD String Quartet, Barney McAll, the Anti-JAZZ Bentet, FLUBB, Robbie Rhodes (Mechanical Music Association), Astra Chamber Music Society, RMIT Gallery, CEC International Partners, La Trobe University Music Dept. and QRS research division.

Slave Pianos Internationale Bienniale 2000 would like to thank: Jennipher Duncan, Stuart Koop, Vikki McInnes, Callum Morton, Tony Kesminas, Brendan Wall, Rachel Young, Peter Wilson, Sarah Morris, Suzanne Davies, Jon Campbell, Tony Milillo, Tommy Zdanius, Dave O'Brien, John Burns, Andrius Lipsys, Jane Crawford, Helen Saniga, Nick Girling.

Authors: SLAVE PIANOS

© SLAVE PIANOS and ACCA

Slave Pianos is represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney


ARCHIVE ::

Chris BURDEN
American, sculptor b. Boston MA 1946
The Atomic Alphabet, 1982

Alison KNOWLES
American, fluxist b. New York NY 1933
Nivea Cream Piece - for Oscar [Emmett] Williams, 1962

Jenny HOLZER
American, sculptor, activist b. Gallipolis, OH, 1950
Untitled, 1981

Martin CREED
Scottish, sculptor b. Wakefield 1966
Work No. 117, 1995

Herman NITSCH
Austrian, aktionist b. Vienna 1938
Music der 66 Aktion, 1998

Emmet WILLIAMS
American, poet b, New York NY 1932
Voice Piece for la Monte Young, 1963

Joe JONES
American, fluxist, b. New York NY 1935
Flux Music Box, 1966

Stephen PRINA
American, sculptor, educator b. Galesburg Ill. 1954
The Devil, Probably, 1997

David WOJNAROWICZ with 3 teens Kill 4
American, painter, activist b. Red Bank NJ 1954, d.1992
Hunger, 1997

Dan GRAHAM
American, sculptor b. Urbana IL 1942
Untitled, 1981

Filippo Tommaso MARINETTI
Italian, futurist b. 1876, d.1944
La Battaglia di Adrionopoli, 1926

Jonas MEKAS
Lithuanian, filmmaker b. 1922
Composition, 1996

Laurence WEINER
American, sculptor, linguist b. New York NY, 1942
Having Been Done At / Having Been Done To, 1973

SLAVE PIANOS performing
George BRECHT
American, sculptor, fluxist b. Halfway Oreg. 1926
Comb Music (Comb Event), 1959-62

Bruce McLEAN
Scottish, painter b. Glasgow 1944
Nicky nacks Noo Department (Everybody's doing it)

Magdalena ABAKANOWICZ
Polish, soft sculptor b. Warsaw, 1930
Cough, 1986

Thurston MOORE
American, musicologist
The Fucking Youth of Today, 1981

Y PANTS
founded circa 1978
Magnetic Attraction, 1980

ADAWO
Australian, pop band, founded 1999
One Whole Song, 1999

George BRECHT with James Tenney
American, sculptor, fluxist b. Halfway Oreg. 1926
Flux Chemist

Richard LONG
English, stroller b. Bristol 1945
Walking in a straight line, 1982

Peter TYNDALL as Slave Guitars
Australian, painter b. Melbourne 1951
6, 1981

Martin KIPPENBERGER
German, sculptor b. Dortmund 1953, d. 1997
Ja, Ja, Ja, Nee, Nee, Nee, 1995

Chris BURDEN
American, sculptor b. Boston MA 1946
Velvet Water, 1974

Barbara KRUGER
American, sculptor b. Newark NJ 1945
Untitled Technology, 1981

Mike KELLEY with Destroy All Monsters
American, sculptor b. Wayne, Michigan 1954
Dry Hump, 1993

Vito ACCONCI
American, sculptor b. Bronx NY, 1940
Now do you Believe the Dirty Dogs are Dead, 1980

SLAVE PIANOS performing
Katharina FRITSCH
German, sculptor b. Essen 1956
Unken, 1990

Ilya KABAKOV with Vladmir TARASOV
Ukranian, installationist b. Dniepropetrovsk, 1933
"Olga Georgievna, Something is Burning", 1993

Slave Pianos, *The Broccoli Maestro*, Programme Text

Chamber Made Opera
present

a Chamber Opera by
SLAVE PIANOS

THE BROCCOLI MAESTRO

in Two Acts, for Six Voices, Six Players and Tape

Libretto by SLAVE PIANOS after writings by Tony Clark, Judith Pascal, Stephen Bram, Angela Brennan, Geoff Lowe, Rose Nolan, Jacqueline Riva, Jane Trengove, Gary Wilson and Constanze Zikos.

8.00pm Friday 22 June 2001
8.00pm Saturday 23 June 2001
North Melbourne Town Hall
Cnr Queensberry & Errol Streets


CAST

Player Role


Mathew Henrick Tony Clark/St Thomas Aquinas Antoinette Halloran Judith Pascal/Philosophy Elizabeth O'Halloran Rose Nolan/A Secretary & Jaqueline Riva/Courtier Judith Dodsworth Angela Brennan/Courtier & Jane Trengove/Courtier Juan Jackson Stephen Bram/Courtier & Constanze Zikos/Courtier Robert Beasley Geoff Lowe/King Louis IX & Gary Wilson/Courtier

MUSICIANS

Player Instrument


Amanda Hodder Harpsichord/Chamber Organ Deborah White Violin Kaerwen Martin 'Cello Wendy Anderson Trumpet Linda Pearson Bassoon Amy Valent Percussion

Conducted by Adrian Kirk

CREW

Player Aspect


Jane Crawford Costumes Margie Medlin Lighting design Terry McKibben Sound Andrew Casey, Kelly Shirreff, Claire Vyverberg Stage management


Prelude

ACT 1

  1. Art History/The salt works (1770-1805)
    • S. Bram `Constructing a simple three point perspective volume'
    • J. S. Bach `Chorale No.188: Ich dank dir schon durch deinen Sohn'
  2. Temples/The cemetery under construction (1971)
    • M. Fusinato `Mono'
    • M. Feldman `For Samuel Beckett'
  3. Recognition/Mortuary Station (N.D.)
    • Hours of fear `4'
    • P. De La Rue `Missa Pro Defunctis: Kyrie'
  4. Landscapes and Myriorama/The power station (1914)
    • G. Lowe `15'
    • A. Berg `Op. 7'
  5. Arabic Interpretations/The Albert Memorial (1863-1872)
    • Heures Roses `Towards a New Art'
    • R. Wagner `Tristan und Isolde'
  6. Acquiescence /The amphitheater (1st Cent. A.D.)
    • House of Journalists `Il Palazzo'
    • Antiphon from Office for the Dead `Si acendero'
  7. Chinoiserie and Kufic /The gothic revival church (1879)
    • G. Lowe and J. Riva `Player Guitar Free 2001'
    • C. Debussy `Preludes: X'

Interlude

ACT 2

  1. Jasperware/The gate (1475-1564)
    • The Living Rococco `Untitled'
    • C. Monteverdi `L'Orfeo: Vi ricorda o boschi ombrosi'
  2. Mural/The cenotaph (1927-1934)
    • R. Nolan `R.R. 4 L.L.'
    • E. Satie `Socrate'
  3. Manichean Heresy/The art gallery (1946-1959)
    • T. Clark `Love and Passion'
    • I. Stravinsky `Cantata: Ricerca I'
  4. Important Contemporary Sculpture/The theatre (4th Cent. B.C)
    • C. Zikos `93-94 Perspecta Negative'
    • J. Cage `One8'
  5. Encouragement, Failure/The factory (1909)
    • T. Clark `Moore minus librium'
    • A. Schoenberg `String Quartet No. II, iv'
  6. Stretchers/The suburban pavilion (1981)
    • Solver `3'
    • N. Cave `Nick the stripper'
  7. Painting/The ruined tower (c.1390)
    • G. Wilson `Sargeant'
    • Anonymous `Alph vibrans monumentum, Coetus venit heroicus, Contratenor, Amicum quaerit'

Postlude


The Broccoli Maestro

ACT ONE

1. Art History/The salt works

Geoff Lowe:

[He's not] academic.

[a punk and] intellectual [kind of attitude...]

[And it's so] speculative.

2. Temples/The cemetery under construction

Jacqueline Riva:

Like Vermeer, without the fourteen children, with his brushes and easel set up in the corner of a tiny flat or private hotel.

Geoff Lowe:

His practice is relentlessly domestic.

Constanze Zikos:

Did he use his index finger or his big left toe painting these peculiar images?

3. Recognition/Mortuary Station

Tony Clark:

Architecture shall again be the subject by which our premonitions of victory and defeat can best be conveyed. This may lead to harsher judgements

Judith Pascal:

For architects, an Old World teaser:

4. Landscapes and Myriorama/The power station

Jacqueline Riva:

The Myriorama landscapes were made to a formula and anyone could have done them provided they followed the formula.

Constanze Zikos:

It's more to do with Barkly Street, pots and pans, and bins. It's pure elbow grease Classicism, an aperitif.

Angela Brennan:

It is funny that he uses broccoli to paint his vegetal forms. And there is spaghetti and hair stuck on his paintings, and paint applied with a cake decorator.

Geoff Lowe:

In fifteen years I've never been to any landscape with Tony.

5. Arabic Interpretations/The Albert Memorial.

Judith Pascal:

the problem's really how
to get survivors out,
and keep the empty buildings
as Museums of Themselves.
From City into Monument,
proceeding from the precedent:
Alhambra,
al-Hamraa, the Red.

Tony Clark:

In my youth I lived in the part of Rome that was most like Canberra - the Fascist bit. There is no link between classicism and fascism, the column and the jackboot.

In relation to classicism, Nazi red herrings are always introduced. It's the failure of the left that pushes people into the arms of the church, into the arms of right-wing politics and, to some extent into the arms of the classicist art. Classicism is a kind of final solution.

True classicism is not simply putting on a toga. Classicism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

6. Acquiescence/The amphitheater

Judith Pascal

Recite:
the Cities are places
of collective Memory;
and Memory
itself formed
of objects and places,
as the City is.

Tony Clark:

THE FORMS, LANGUAGE AND APPARATUS OF 'HIGH' CULTURE ARE NOT OUT OF BOUNDS

7. Chinoiserie and Kufic/The gothic revival church

Jane Trengove:

When Tony makes little Chinese temples out of plasticine and then paints them he is obstructing you.

ACT TWO

8. Jasperware/The gate

Constanze Zikos:

The Jasperware is the wrong version of Jasperware. People can't identify with it. They'd lose their mind over it.

There is no cameo. There is no Pegasus. There is no anthem. It's just a piece of porcelain,

9. Mural/The cenotaph

Stephen Bram:

The St. Kilda Library mural works because it is neither spectacular nor banal.

Rose Nolan:

Most of the staff really hate this mural.

Stephen Bram:

It's nothing but a stylized rendition of a wall, which is a very slightly self-reflexive joke.

Angela Brennan:

It is as good as Frank Lloyd Wright.

Rose Nolan:

I met Nick Cave because he came to see Tony's mural.

10. Manichean Heresy/The art gallery

Judith Pascal

And once there were Great Ideas
they flowed
through the history of Cities

Tony Clark:

I stress that I cannot provide that antitdote - I am not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

My figure is present with its absence

11. Important Contemporary Sculpture/The theatre

Angela Brennan:

Do you think he was cross when he made these?

Jacquline Riva:

Why?

Angela Brennan:

The appropriation of a work by Eva Hesse is disturbing. I think he wants to be Hesse ... and who wouldn't want to be Hesse - I would.

Jacqueline Riva:

But she's dead!

Constanze Zikos:

He is cross-dressing through all these paintings ... a deranged designer of textiles. A very multilingual process, in reverse.

12. Encouragement, Failure/The factory

Judith Pascal

More anciently,

feet moving
in time
with the moving skies:
that was language

the stable meanings
case with the skills
and various habits
of our body
'The collective
is a body

Tony Clark:

As a true son of the professional middle class, I had always believed that it was the mission of the contemporary artist to campaign against all the tawdriness and hypocricy in the world, and that this should be achieved using formal means of the highest probity and integrity. Fine painting could not be the means by which any thing cultural or significant could be achieved in our time.

13. Stretchers/The suburban pavilion

Rose Nolan:

I loved the show of stretcher bars at Anna Schwartz Gallery.

Stephen Bram:

The paintings don't appear to be careful.

Rose Nolan:

It's the economy of means.

Stephen Bram:

If they looked like they were painstakingly done they would be kind of trivial.

Gary Wilson:

The making of a very beautiful thing out of nothing is a very Melbourne phenomenon.

Rose Nolan:

People responded really badly to the exhibition.

Geoff Lowe:

They have some quality like he hasn't done any work, that he doesn't give a shit about you, that he is trying to send you up and you fear that.

14. Painting/The ruined tower

Gary Wilson:

Tony is trying to make painterly paintings relevant.

Jane Trengove:

He makes a place for painting by almost negating it.

Rose Nolan:

Tony's interested in getting things wrong. He is interested in people's work who get it wrong without even trying.

Jacqueline Riva:

The "not trying" I am really envious of.

Geoff Lowe:

Trying is lying. He is stylish, a dandy ... and he doesn't try - the history of art is full of so much trying.

Angela Brennan:

And rubbing out and leaving a mistake.

Geoff Lowe:

So he tapped into some other ability. He paints beneath himself.

Sources:

  1. Tony Clark "ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA" Pnuematic Drill No.35, 1981
  2. Max Delaney Tony Clark. Public and Private Paintings, 1982-1998, Museum of Modern Art at Heidi, Bulleen, Victoria, 1998
  3. Tony Clark "Fascist Classicism" Art and Australia Vol.25 No.3 Autumn 1988
  4. Judith Pascal "Fuck the Polis" Strolling: Catalogue Museum of Modern Art at Heide, 1998
  5. Tony Clark Halftime Minutes Speaking at the Montmartre Motel, Grey St. St Kilda 27 Oct. 1987
  6. Rebecca Lancashire "The broccoli maestro" The Age June 1998
  7. Tony Clark "Houses, Palaces, Cities" Artlink Vol.6 No.3 Autumn 1986
  8. Tony Clark "POSTERITY WILL JUDGE: Tony Clark on de Chirico" Tension 21 1990

The Broccoli Maestro

THE BROCCOLI MAESTRO draws together materials from four sources: 1) the writings, musical compositions, paintings and ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA of Tony Clark; 2) the writings of Clark's literary pseudonym Judith Pascal; 3) musical compositions and commentaries on Clark's work by his colleagues Stephen Bram, Constanze Zikos, Rose Nolan, Geoff Lowe, Angela Brennan and Gary Wilson; and 4) historical musical correspondences with Clark's seminal painting ensemble The Technical Manifesto of Town Planning, 1982. The unifying figure of Tony Clark provides a mechanism to bring together musical, artistic and theoretical discourses spanning eight centuries and three continents by relocating Melbourne artists in 13th century Paris.

TONY CLARK belongs to a generation of artists whose practices have been informed by both conceptual art and popular culture. In Clark's case, this position is all the more revealing for the artist's strong interest in the history of classical art and architecture, and the attendant areas of interior design, decoration and music. Tony Clark's work demonstrates a technical virtuosity, at the same time that it embraces a slapstick and off-handed anti-painting posture, in its investigation of the threshold between the properties of painting, sculpture and installation. Clark's work issues from a longstanding interest in the history of taste, architectural embellishment and the disputes between classicism and popular culture. These issues are articulated by a deliberate amateurism whereby the concept of failure is built into the work, not only for the organic and uncanny possibilities it affords, but also to offset the lofty and transcendental values characteristic of Classicism. Tony Clark's project is relentlessly contemporary, domestic and local - a travesty of the classics. Clark's work assumes an anti-art position reminiscent of the historical avant-garde, and low-tech serial productions characteristic of pop. These forms are incorporated for their historical register in order to underwrite the artist's historical inquisition from a contemporary position.

Clark was a founding participator in the activities of ANTI-MUSIC, a collective of visual artists initiated by John Nixon in 1979. ANTI-MUSIC shared an interest in politically and economically progressive means of sound production, which they called "industrial folk music." Their practice is informed by the legacy of Futurist, Dada, and film music and coupled with a DIY attitude first associated with Punk. With Nixon, Clark explored the musical corollary of his interest in the Renaissance, which he described as ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA. The Synopsis (see facing page) of Clark's own anti-opera Aquinas forms the conceptual framework for THE BROCCOLI MAESTRO.

The present libretto folds Clark's scheme for Aquinas onto a series of anecdotes and critical responses to the painter's work by fellow artists. It uses the form of Clark's lyric drama as a template for inserting the painter himself (a complex and highly theatrical persona constructed as a deliberate part of his art practice) into the central Aquinas role with his feminine, scholarly alter ego, Judith Pascal as Philosophy. The conflation of textual sources - Clark's ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA and the Colloquium - which are seemingly contradictory in both a historical and geographical sense - is in fact consistent with Clark's desire to give expression to a "St Kilda version of classicism".

The interleaving of related but disparate textual materials has a direct parallel with the musical structure. The fourteen scenes of the opera correspond directly with the fourteen canvas boards of the Technical Manifesto. Two streams of musical materials, one derived from Clark's involvement in the original ANTI-MUSIC activities (1979-1981) and the other from his wide interest in classical formal structures, are folded together and presented simultaneously.


SLAVE PIANOS is an organisation devoted to the collection, analysis, performance, and recomposition of sound work by visual artists. In the last year SLAVE PIANOS have presented exhibitions and performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Glasgow, Kassel, New York, Los Angeles, St Petersburg, and Moscow; and have collaborated with DJ Olive, DJ Kuya, DJ James deCruz, the Flux String Quartet, the Krasnyi Quartet, the Elektra String Quartet, the DeFLOCKeD String Quartet, Barney McAll, the Anti-JAZZ Bentet, Graeme Leak, Astra Chamber Music Society, RMIT Gallery, CEC International Partners, La Trobe University Music Dept. the Burley Griffin Brass Band, the National Gallery of Australia, and the research division of QRS. An anthology of SLAVE PIANOS will be released by Revolver Publications, Frankfurt in September.

Slave Pianos, *Foreign Knowledge*, Programme Text

Künstlerhaus Bethanien and The University of Ballarat
present
A Documentary Monodrama by
SLAVE PIANOS

FOREIGN KNOWLEDGE

I have made a heap of all that I could find

For Soprano, Narrator, Chorus, Computer Operated Piano and Tape Machine

After the writings, letters, artwork and music of Peter Tyndall.

With Tracy Bourne, Soprano and Kurt Geyer, Narrator.

6pm, Friday September 27, 2002
Old Courthouse Building, Camp Street
Ballarat, Victoria

Dramatis Personae:


Peter Tyndall, Painter Overhead Projector, Semaphore Flags Peter Tyndall, Essayist Kurt Geyer, Narrator Peter Tyndall, Epistolist Tracy Bourne, Soprano Peter Tyndall, Stater Phillippa Chalke, Erin Cooke, Adrian Corbett, Emily Devlin, David Harford, Ben Jenner, Danny Miller, Shannon Woodford, Chorus Peter Tyndall, Composer Tape, Piano


Peter Tyndall, Epistolist/Soprano:

Letter

Peter Tyndall, Stater/Chorus:

L

detail
A Person Looks At a Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

O

In Australia We Say: But Is It Art?

G

HA HA

O

¡RELAX!
WORLD ART
IS ONLY
HEGEMONY ART
¡RELAX!

S

Detail
Eine Person betrachtet ein Kunstwerk/
Jemand betrachtet etwas …

Peter Tyndall, Essayist/Narrator:

Journal Article

Essay

Essay

Thankyou to Katja Borchert, Tracy Bourne, Jane Crawford, Irene Crebbin, Jeremy Drape, Mikala Dwyer, Nicholas Girling, Antanas Kesminas, Audrone Kesminas, Renae Kingdom. Darren Knight, John McDonald, Mathias Mrowka, Roslyn Salmon, Helen Saniga, The University of Ballarat Arts Academy, Vice Chancellor University of Ballarat, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, The City of Ballarat, Bildener Künstler Berlins GmbH, The Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin and The Australia Council. Production Manager: Sarah McPhaill Assistant Production Manager: Jordan Sullivan. SLAVE PIANOS is represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.

Slave Pianos, *A Schema and Historo-Materialist Pro-gnostic*, Programme Text

021-002

Slave Pianos, *A Schema and Historo-Materialist Pro-gnostic*, Programme Text

The MCA, Darren Knight Gallery and the
Remembering the 20^th^ Century Committee presents:

SLAVE PIANOS
Pianology: A Schema and Historo-Materialist Pro-gnostic
MCA, 4^th^ Floor, Sunday 22 October 2006, 12:00 Midday

  1. John NIXON as Two Greys Becoming
    2, 1981
    Australian, painter b. Sydney 1949

  2. Joseph BEUYS + Nam June PAIK
    In Memoriam George Maciunas, 1978
    German, sculptor b. Krefeld 1921, d. 1986
    Korean, sculptor b. Seoul 1932, d. 2006

  3. Anthony CLARK (The Living Rococo)
    Untitled, 1981
    Australian, painter b. Canberra 1954

  4. Jean TINGUELY
    Relief Meta-mechanique Sonore I, 1955
    Swiss, sculptor b. Fribourg 1925, d.1989

  5. Peter TYNDALL as Slave Guitars
    6, 1981
    Australian, painter b. Melbourne 1951

  6. Louise BOURGEOIS
    Otte, 1995
    American, sculptor b. Paris 1911

  7. Jean DUBUFFET
    Coq a L'oeil, 1961
    French, painter b. Le Havre 1901, d. 1985

  8. Lillian BUDD (Merryln Tweedie)
    Studies For Existence, 1998
    New Zealand, sculptor b. Christchurch 1953

  9. Daniel MALONE + Martin POPPERWELL
    The Strike Church, 1990
    New Zealand, sculptor b. Dunedin 1967
    New Zealand, painter b. Christchurch 1969

  10. D. M. THOMAS + Hany ARMANIOUS
    November 1996, 1997
    Australian, painter b. Sydney 1968
    Australian, sculptor b. Egypt 1962

  11. Mike KELLEY with Destroy All Monsters
    (Raga) The End of Time, 1995
    American, sculptor b. Wayne, Michigan 1954

  12. Domenico de CLARIO
    From The Opaque, 1994-5
    Australian, sculptor b. Trieste 1947

  13. George BRECHT
    Comb Piece(Comb Event), 1959-62
    American, sculptor b. Halway, Oregon 1925

  14. Katharina FRITSCH
    Unken, 1990
    German, sculptor b. Essen 1956

  15. Diter ROT (Dieter Roth)
    Der Akkordeon Fluch, 1981-2
    Swiss, sculptor b. Hannover 1930 d.1998

  16. Marco FUSINATO
    EP in E, 1997
    Australian, painter b. Melbourne 1964

  17. Ronnie van HOUT with Into The Void
    Bank Roll, 1998
    New Zealand, sculptor b. Christchurch 1962

Slave Pianos, *Dissident Consonances*, Programme Text

ASTRA
2007

5pm Saturday 26 May 2007
5pm Sunday 27 May 2007
Lithuanian House
44 Errol Street, North Melbourne

DISSIDENT CONSONANCES or:

THE IRON CURTAIN, THE FLUX-LABYRINTH & LITHUANIAN HOUSE or:

Chairman George Maciunas & President Vytautas Landsbergis

Based on the correspondence of Fluxus founder George Maciunas and Lithuania's first post-Soviet Head of State, Vytautas Landsbergis.

music, art, non-art, theatre, architecture, diaries, letters, poetry, testimonies, political writings, manifestos, film, dance, food, drink and other objects by SLAVE PIANOS, George Maciunas, Vytautas Landsbergis, Jonas Mekas, Leokadija Maciunas, Claudio Monteverdi, Henry Purcell, Jean de Macque, M.K.Ciurlionis, Anonymous (14th Century), Ottavio Rinuccini, Keith Humble, George Brecht, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Larry Miller & Joe Jones


SLAVE PIANOS:
Danius Kesminas, Neil Kelly, Rohan Drape & Michael Stevenson

solo performers:
Richard Piper actor
Alena Karazijiene (Vytautas Landsbergis' sister) narration
Nicholas Tolhurst baritone, sick man
Catrina Seiffert soprano, Hana Crisp alto
George Liakatos tenor

keyboards & continuo:
Elizabeth Anderson, Kim Bastin, Peter Dumsday & Joan Pollock organ positive, organ portative, regal, harpsichord, celeste & pianos
Caerwen Martin cello

dancing & games:
Nerija Zemkalnis (Vytautas Landsbergis' great-niece)

vodka pipeline organ:
Dave Nelson & Antanas Kesminas organ technicians

vodka jelly & pancake chefs:
Dana Binkis & the Australian-Lithuanian Women's Welfare Association

the ASTRA CHOIR:

soprano
Irene McGinnigle, Catrina Seiffert, Yvonne Turner, Louisa Billeter, Larissa Cox, Maree Macmillan, Kim Tan

alto
Pen Alexander, Hana Crisp, Anna Gifford, Beverley Bencina, Aviva Endean, Frances McKinnon, Toni Robson, Aline Scott-Maxwell, Lisel Thomas

tenor
Lachlan Brown, Mark Kerr, George Liakatos, William Thompson, Greg Deakin, Jon Drews, Simon Johnson

bass
Karl Billeter, Nicholas Tolhurst, Peter Dumsday, Andrew Rostas, Chris Smith, John Terrell, Jerzy Kozlowski

conducted by John McCaughey

Production Angela Pamic
Sound & recording engineer Michael Hewes
Astra manager Bobbie Hodge


DISSIDENT CONSONANCES or: The Iron Curtain, The Flux-Labyrinth & Lithuanian House or: Chairman George Maciunas & President Vytautas Landsbergis

PART 1. FOYER. EXHIBITION & MECHANIZED PIANO RECITAL. / THE FLUX-LABYRINTH & LITHUANIAN HOUSE

SLAVE PIANOS
TRANSCRIPTIONS, COMPOSITIONS (1998-2007)
mechanized piano

George Brecht
COMB MUSIC (COMB EVENT) from Water Yam (1960-63)
choir

TRANSITION & CORRIDOR INTERVENTION: Audience moves up stairs to balcony

Anon.
Estampie
LAMENTO DI TRISTANO (14th century), organ portative

PART 2. MAIN THEATRE. PLAY WITH CHORUS. / DISSONANT CORRESPONDENCES or: / THE LETTERS OF CHAIRMAN MACIUNAS & PRESIDENT LANDSBERGIS

Nam June Paik
2 x mini Giants (1991)
narrator
The East European revolution produced a playwright-president...

Keith Humble
HAIKU 3 from The Seasons (1971)
2 choirs with glass
No sky at all, no earth, and still the snowflakes fall – Shiki

M.K.Čiurlionis
VIENAM KIEMELY / AR VEJAI PUTE from Lithuanian Folksongs (1905)
choir
There was an infallible artist... – V.Landsbergis

Vytautas Landsbergis
SPATIAL POEM NO.3 (1966)
choir
Falling Event. Various things were let fall... - V.Landsbergis

SLAVE PIANOS
CHORALE from Two Lives In Flux: And Vice Versa (2004) choir
Since Monteverdi, nothing of note has been composed... – G.Maciunas

George Maciunas
TRIO FOR LADDER, MUD AND PEBBLES (1962) / DUET FOR FULL BOTTLE AND WINE GLASS (1962) / SOLO FOR SICK MAN (1962)
choir

TRANSITION & CORRIDOR INTERVENTION: Audience moves down stairs to ballroom

Robertsbrige Codex
ORGAN ESTAMPIE (1325), regal

PART 3. BALLROOM. CHAMBER CONCERT. / PARTHENIA or: FLUX-WEDDING / FLUX-MASS

Jean de Macque
CONSONANZE STRAVAGANTI (ca 1610) (Extravagant Consonances)
organ positive

Henry Purcell
A NEW GROUND (1683)
harpsichord

George Maciunas
GIANT WHEEL from FLUXGAMES (1973)
dancer, actor, devices

Rohan Drape
WEDDING SENTENCES (2007)
choir, organs, celeste, cello, electronics
and George, laughing, laughing at it all... – J.Mekas

Henry Purcell
FUNERAL SENTENCES (1695)
choir & continuo
In the midst of life we are in death... - Notker of St Gallen.

Jean de Macque
STRAVAGANTI II. (ca 1610)
organ positive

PART 4. MAIN THEATRE. FILM. / ZEFIRO TORNA / LAST WILL & TESTAMENT or: / SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE MACIUNAS & VYTAUTAS LANDSBERGIS

Jonas Mekas
ZEFIRO TORNA or: SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE MACIUNAS (1992)
16mm film 34 minutes

Claudio Monteverdi
SVOGAVA CON LE STELLE from Madrigals Book IV (1603)
choir
He lamented to the stars, under a night sky... - O.Rinuccini

Neil Kelly
SIX CHORUSES (2007)
choir, keyboards & cello
The ship goes forward... - V.Landsbergis

Claudio Monteverdi ZEFIRO TORNA from Scherzi musicali (1632)
choir & continuo
The west wind returns... – O.Rinuccini

PART 5. DINING ROOM. STILL LIFE. / NEVER FOREVER

George Maciunas
POTATOE & FLOUR EVENT from FLUX-FEST (1973)
vodka pipeline organ, vodka jelly, pancakes, devices, façade intervention film


PART 1. FOYER. EXHIBITION & MECHANIZED PIANO RECITAL.

THE FLUX-LABYRINTH & LITHUANIAN HOUSE

George Maciunas & Larry Miller
FAÇADE INTERVENTION from FLUX-LABYRINTH (1976)
mdf, vinyl adhesive, paint

SLAVE PIANOS
TRANSCRIPTIONS, COMPOSITIONS (1998-2007)
mechanized piano

  1. George Brecht Comb Music (Comb Event)
  2. Beuys / Paik In Memoriam
  3. SLAVE PIANOS Chorale from Two Lives In Flux: And Vice-Versa (2004)

George Brecht
COMB MUSIC (COMB EVENT) from Water Yam (1960-63)
choir


PART 2. MAIN THEATRE. PLAY WITH CHORUS.

DISSONANT CORRESPONDENCES or:

THE LETTERS OF CHAIRMAN MACIUNAS & PRESIDENT LANDSBERGIS

Texts:

  • Nam June Paik, 2 x Mini Giants, Artforum, 1991
  • Private correspondence between Vytautas Landsbergis and George Maciunas.

Keith Humble
HAIKU 3 from The Seasons (1971)

No sky at all,
No earth at all – but still
The snowflakes fall...

(Shiki)

NAM JUNE PAIK: The East European revolution produced a playwright- president, Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia, but few people know that it also produced a Fluxus-president: Vytautas Landsbergis, the president of Lithuania. During the spring of 1990, the image of this bespectacled and stoop-shouldered "music professor" paraded across the TV news every day. He successfully defied the blockade of Soviet power and the "benevolent" advice of the Western press to go slow lest he destroy the superpower summit. When Gorbachev received the Nobel Prize, Landsbergis sent him a congratulatory telegram: "Your Majesty……". This audacious style of David- and-Goliath situation strongly reminded me of Landsbergis' best friend, George Maciunas, founder of the "small" Fluxus Movement and the "enormous" SoHo glitz.

MACIUNAS: I don't burn your letters, first I memorize, then I burn.

Vytautas Landsbergis
SPATIAL POEM NO.3 (1966)

LANDSBERGIS: Spatial Poem No. 3 "Falling Event. Various things were let fall: Vytautas Landsbergis caught a pike at the lake of Aisetas, cleaned its entrails and threw them into a pit towards the center of the earth. Then he cut the pike into pieces and let them fall onto a frying pan." Lithuania, July 31 1966

MACIUNAS: Hallo Vytas! I was very happy to receive your letter - It is nice to find old friends and I am very interested to get into closer contact with people in culture or politics in Lithuania and Soviet Union. The reason for my interest in cooperation is motivated by the possibility of a connection of the latest form or art and the communist principles (which Fluxus tries to develop). Such art is:

  1. Concrete and realistic, because it does not tend to be artificial or illusionistic, intellectual or abstract - neither in composition, form or rendering. 2. FOLK ART, because it is not created for specialists, critics, artists and other intellectuals. Such art can be created, understood and presented by anybody - with education or without. It is for everybody. 3. Social, because such art finally eliminates the profession of artists and lets the former artists engage in a socially more productive work.

M.K.Čiurlionis
VIENAM KIEMELY / AR VEJAI PUTE from Lithuanian Folksongs (1905)

Buvo heklystas artistas,
Te visko uso butiniu
Pu se visai uz dusino kita Paliko sirgti beuzsipilti mirti.

There was an infallible artist
with a kiss from a fatherly whisker
he nearly choked the one half and left the other to drown approaching death.

(Vytautas Landsbergis)

NAM JUNE PAIK: Landsbergis and Maciunas were both the sons of well-to-do architects, and were best friends at a grade school in Kaunas, Lithuania, in the last peaceful days of prewar Europe. The Soviet-German occupation/war/retreat with the German army/hunger/the displaced person's camp/his father's enigmatic death (suicide?)/the vanity of New York/capitalism's "contradictions" all these horrendous things made George Maciunas a heavy asthmatic, a fanatical do-goodist, an ego-centrist, and a part-time paranoiac. In 1965, as a native Marxist, Maciunas contacted the old friend he had left in Lithuania, who was alas a burning anti-Marxist. In response, in a letter of December 5 1963, Landsbergis sent Maciunas some subversive performance ideas:

LANDSBERGIS: A SEWER'S HYMN: "The performer walks on stage, pulls out from a bag a dozen licey rats and throws them at the public! / this would be work for people, animals and the public. / Do not take this as a joke, these are chance ideas which could, in thousands, come to a head, in Fluxus spirit."

Keith Humble
CLICKERS EVENT from Trois Poèmes à Crier et à Danser (1969)

MACIUNAS: To avoid repeating the same thing, I am sending you a short article explaining the basis of this new art (I will send it in another letter, because I am in hospital and don't have it with me). I also send you our "Manifesto". In a separate parcel I am sending a few issues of Fluxus No.1 (so far only one was published) - I am also sending tapes with recorded music (for our concerts), and programs, photographs and advertisements for our concerts. In short - a parcel with sundry papers.

LANDSBERGIS: Not until 1962, when Almus Salcius came to Lithuania hoping to make a film about Ciurlionis did I find out his whereabouts. Hearing from Salcius about the activities of a George Maciunas in America, I wondered if he was the same Jurgis Mačiūnas I used to know. I wrote him a letter asking if he would help promote the work of Ciurlionis beyond the borders of Lithuania. He responded with a very long, informal and friendly letter. It seemed that he sincerely enjoyed reestablishing our old friendship. He was not interested in the work of Ciurlionis. Instead, he explained to me thoroughly what he himself was doing, and about the artistic problems that interested him. He also mailed me a bunch of used records, presumably from his own collection that happened to be of great value to me, as a teacher of the history of music. They were mostly records that were not available to us at the time. Scarlatti sonatas, Monteverdi Psalms, Bach's St Matthew Passion, and jazz-blues, John Coltrane, free jazz et cetera.

LEOKADIJA MACIUNAS: My son destroyed a piano with a hammer and axes. At that time he seemed possessed by a dark power.

LANDSBERGIS: Lithuania is watching the strangeness of the world and trying not to add to it.

SLAVE PIANOS
CHORALE from Two Lives In Flux: And Vice-Versa (2004)

Po Monteverdi nieko verto
ne buvo sukurta.

Since Monteverdi, nothing
of note has been composed

(George Maciunas)

NAM JUNE PAIK: Landsbergis, although still confined in Soviet Lithuania, participated three times in the Fluxus mail-art event organized by Mieko Shiomi from Osaka, Japan.

LANDSBERGIS: Spatial Poem No. 5. "Open Event. People opened … Vytautas Landsbergis. A day after my return from the country to my flat in Vilnius, I opened the lid of my piano and hit the keyboard of F sharp. When the sound died down completely, I went to my study to continue on some unfinished work." Vilnius, 1 PM July 23, 1972

Vytautas Landsbergis
SPATIAL POEM NO. 5 (1972)

MACIUNAS: I am not sending you a dodecaphonic handbook and don't advise you to use one, for dodecaphonia is decadent and past its time. Like abstract art, it has no social relevance, can be understood only by musicians and mathematicians and only after the notes have been studied. But I will put into the parcel a few John Cage compositions (notes and tapes) - which are, I think, the most important for this century and the evolution of the new art.

LANDSBERGIS: Then other boxes started coming. Flux promotion stuff. Well, as you might guess, the contemporary political situation wasn't ready for that. All incoming mail from abroad was of great interest to the authorities. I even wondered if this was some kind of provocation, to find out if I would dare to promote Fluxus ideas. Nevertheless, the ideas of Fluxus were cautiously analyzed during my lecture periods, as radical Western avant-garde art, having many meanings.

Keith Humble
MUSIC-BOXES EVENT from Trois Poèmes à Crier et à Danser (1969)

NAM JUNE PAIK: In 1964 Maciunas picketed Karlheinz Stockhausen's music- play Originale, played by myself and other Fluxus members on 57th St. He accused us (or me in particular?) of being "social climbers" and Stockhausen of being a "racist" and a "cultural imperialist" because the latter did not have a high regard for Jazz, the Black people's invention. (Maciunas even let the French Fluxus member Ben Vautier picket John Cage and Merce Cunningham in [word obscured] for a similar reason in 1965.) However, we (Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins, Mac Low, Charlotte Moorman, Ayo, and myself) continued the Originale performance inside the Hudson Hall at 57th Street.

George Maciunas
SOLO FOR SICK MAN (1962)
TRIO FOR LADDER, PEBBLES AND MUD (1962)

MACIUNAS: Forgive me my mistakes in the Lithuanian language - Even in Lithuania I always had a "one" for grammar, because I never used diacritics. Now I never have occasion to write in Lithuanian, because I write in English and have no contact with Lithuanian immigrants, whose decadent chauvinism and reactionary bourgeois attitude does not interest me.

NAM JUNE PAIK: Feeling betrayed by his comrades, Maciunas, chairman of Fluxus, declared Fluxus dead and plunged himself into the SoHo housing project. He won a landmark decision to convert a light-manufacturing loft building into an artist residence. He endowed the venerable Fluxus name on the first artist co-op in SoHo, at 80 Wooster Street. The similar conversion of twenty-seven buildings followed at no profit to him, igniting the SoHo real estate boom. In 1978, Maciunas finished his life at forty- seven in poverty, betrayed by his tenants, co-op members, and real estate interests.

MACIUNAS: This spring we plan to go to Poland, in autumn - to Japan, it would be best to go to the Soviet Union via Siberia (and give some concerts there).

LOEKADIJA MACIUNAS: Even in the eleventh hour George let his plans exceed the possibilities.

SLAVE PIANOS
CHORALE from Two Lives In Flux: And Vice-Versa (2004)

LANDSBERGIS: I never saw him again. He continued mailing Fluxus materials to me, and announcements of festivals, so, half-seriously, and half for fun, I sent him suggestions for "happenings". Then afterwards I noticed that my name had been listed on Fluxus festival programs as one of the performers. At the time, I was really worried about possible official repercussions.

NAM JUNE PAIK: That same year (1978), Joseph Beuys and I performed a farewell sonata for him at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie. Soon a quiet renaissance of Fluxus began, and behind the Iron Curtain, the slow renaissance of Lithuania was growing, led by the stubborn ex-Fluxus man Vytautas Landsbergis.

Vytautas Landsbergis
SPATIAL POEM NO.5 (1972, Revised 2004)


PART 3. BALLROOM. CHAMBER CONCERT.

PARTHENIA or: FLUX-WEDDING / FLUX-MASS

Jean de Macque
CONSONANZE STRAVAGANTI (ca 1610)
organ positive

Henry Purcell
A NEW GROUND (1683)
harpsichord

George Maciunas
GIANT WHEEL from FLUXGAMES (1973)
dancer, actor, devices

Rohan Drape
WEDDING SENTENCES (2007)
choir, electronics, organ positive, regal, celeste, cello

puzzles
totally inconsequential
unimportant...
all in praise of nothingness
including Warhol
his own fragile life...
little boxes...
laughing at it all
laughing
totally inconsequential... HA HA

(JonasMekas / Peter Tyndall)

Henry Purcell
FUNERAL SENTENCES (1695)

In the midst of life we are in death,
of whom may we seek for succour but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins art justly displeased?

Yet, O Lord, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.

Suffer us not at out last hour,
For any pains of death,
To fall away from thee.

(Notker of St Gallen)

Jean de Macque
STRAVAGANTI II. (ca 1610)
organ positive


PART 4. MAIN THEATRE. ZEFIRO TORNA / LAST WILL & TESTAMENT or:

Scenes From The Life Of GEORGE MACIUNAS & VYTAUTAS LANDSBERGIS

Claudio Monteverdi
SFOGAVA CON LE STELLE (1603)

Sfogava con le stelle
un infermo d'Amore
sotto notturno ciel
il suo dolore,
e dicea fisso in loro:
"O immagini belle de l'idol mio ch'adoro,
sì com'a me mostrate
mentre così splendete
la sua rara beltate,
così mostraste a lei
i vivi ardori miei.
La fareste col vostr'aureo sembiante
Pietosa sì come me fate amante".

He lamented to the stars,
one sick with love
under the night sky
venting his suffering.
And said, fixing his gaze upon them,
"Oh lovely images of my adored idol,
just as you reveal to me,
with your own splendour,
her rare loveliness,
so do you reveal to her
the living fires of my passion.
Make her with your sublime appearance
gentle indeed, just as you make me loving."

(Ottavio Rinuccini)

Jonas Mekas
ZEFIRO TORNA or: SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE MACIUNAS (1992)
16mm film 34 minutes

LAST WILL & TESTAMENT or: SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF VYTAUTAS LANDSBERGIS
Materials provided by Alena Karazijiene, edited by Rainer Kelly

MEKAS: April 16 1977. In a sense, George's stance is of one who is totally disillusioned, of one who is resigned to the fact that he has no longer a firm place on this earth - neither in body nor geography. His country has been sacrificed on the alter of Yalta.

MEKAS: June 27, 1970. His body is here only by the grace of cortisone: an artificial, by now, frame held together only by his willpower. The only thing left to him is his laugh. So he became a King in his own Kingdom, a court jester presiding over the games of life, jokes, insignificances - the light and the subtle, the heavy importances he leaves to the rest of the world.

Neil Kelly
SIX CHORUSES (2007)

I

The ship goes forward, ripples form around it.
Some observe the ripples – maybe some feel dizzy or uncertain,
Some don't even see the ship that carries them.

And on the ship – some are inspecting a little screw
Worrying if it will not undermine the passage.

But the ship parts the waves; its name is Lithuanian Revival,
It's motor – the Sajudis and favorable winds of the epoch.
On the mast – we raise our Tricolor hope.

(Vytautas Landsbergis)

MEKAS: April 16, 1977. George is in town, stopped to eat with us, with a friend, Billie. Hollis thought she was his girlfriend. They were so nice together. And George was really happy. Most of the time he is happy anyway, no matter what. But he said he's taking morphine every day, by prescription. Can't stand the pain. Stomach. It has been like that for four months, doesn't know what else to do, tried everything. The pain is like 'Pulling tooth without anesthesia all day long, bow could I stand it without morphine?" He said he can't sleep either. And eats very little. But he ate a lot of tongue and sheep cheese. Said he has four goats on his farm, is making a lot of goat cheese. Billie milks the goats.

LANDSBERGIS: January 13, 1991. Last Will and Testament by Vytautas Landsbergis. Citizens of the Lithuanian Republic, who believe in Lithuania, who love your beautiful birthplace, your fathers' and mothers' language and songs - everything that is your homeland and without which you remain an orphan, who thirst for a free and honorable Lithuania, understand: it will be thus, it will be reborn free forever, because that's how it will remain in your hearts.

MEKAS: January 28th 1978. George is getting married. He finally collected his courage and proposed to Billy. Called George. He says, "I have some news". I said, "NY is talking already".

II

I'm going to nail down
the piano keys
tonight.
Would you mind
bringing in the nails?

(George Maciunas)

MEKAS: February 11 1978. To be aware of approaching death is one thing. To accept death is another thing. But George has accepted living with death in a perfect Fluxus spirit. Ah, he has been used to death all his life. He says he is so full of medicine and drugs and cortisone that the bugs do not bite him – and that those bugs that bite him drop dead immediately. Already in 1960, doctors gave him only a few months to live but he's still around, George, doing his art. George is not using his body to make art, there isn't much of it left, there never was. He is using his life to make his art.

LANDSBERGIS: I tell you these words having foreseen that I may no longer be able to talk to you. There has come another night, which like the long dark time before the storm, will not last long. The decaying pillars of slavery collapse and neither the caretakers' fury nor the mercenaries' marching can save the Soviet prison house. We must maintain our farms, our families, our land without fleeing from, neither our land nor our conscience.

III

Death always walked around me, sparing me.
Sparing me the experience of the death.

(George Maciunas)

LANDSBERGIS: Do not work in a foreign state's service. Be neither a deputy nor a minister, nor their secretary. Let those generals rule with their riff-raff. Do not participate in any elections. Work and worship in Church. Do not become dispirited or drown yourselves in vodka. Protect the untarnished soul and land, sky and water, because all of this - Lithuania is necessary for our children and our descendants.

MEKAS: NO DATE: George's favourite writers are Dostoevsky and Thomas Mann. Fluxus was not an Art Movement; it was a way of life. George says he is really looking forward to hearing all 38 lost operas of Monteverdi after he dies. He says: "it's worth dying just for that". Monteverdi is his favourite composer, he says "Nothing of any great interest has been composed after him".

IV

My son had gone
My little son
My joy and my sorrow

He was offended by fate
So many failures
So much suffering

I did not weep
But my heart screamed
Something painful and tangible
Trembled in me like an electrical current.

I spread a rose-coloured oil on his lips,
The dear unforgettable lines of my boy,
Placed fragrant freesias and a white rose near his face.

On the lid of the coffin was a huge bouquet of white flowers:
Freesias, lilacs, tulips and peonies,
Like a bride at a wedding,
A sign of innocence to my pure angel.

(Leokadija Maciunas)

MEKAS: August 1, 1989. Warhol and George. Warhol and Fluxus. Somewhere there, very deep, they were the same, they were both Fluxus, they both dealt essentially with nothingness, they both dismissed the current life, civilization, everything that is being practiced today, as "everything is the same". Didn't take any of it seriously. Both took life as a game and laughed at it, each in his own way, untouched by any of it themselves, looking at it all from the side, or from high above, and creating their own realities that didn't really fit into it.

MEKAS: February 28, 1978. Andy, standing at the Studio 54 in the lobby, standing on the side, never in the middle of it, never really embracing it, and George, laughing, laughing at it all, including Warhol, and creating in its place his own fragile life, totally inconsequential, unimportant, a world of games, little boxes, puzzles, jokes, all in praise of nothingness.

V

(I tell you these words
having foreseen
that I may no longer be able to talk to you).

There has come another night,
which, like the long dark time before the storm,
will not last long.

The decaying pillars of slavery collapse
and neither the caretakers' fury
nor the mercenaries' marching
can save the Soviet prison house.

We must maintain our farms,
our families, our land
without fleeing – from neither our land
nor our conscience.

(Vytautas Landsbergis)

MEKAS: May 5, 1978. Visited George at the hospital, the University Hospital in Boston. He looks so thin, sitting on his cot. When I came in, the nurses were preparing to wheel him out to the surgery room. He asked them to wait five minutes so he could talk with me… We spoke for a few minutes. His voice was so weak that several times I had to ask him to repeat what he said. "They are amazed that I am still around" he said. "All I can hope is that they'll keep me going until the miracle drug arrives". He laughed. He said he was putting his hopes on a drug they were working on in Texas, or somewhere. "They are very serious scientists, I spoke with them" he said. He couldn't get on the surgery bed by himself, so I lifted first one foot, then another, and helped him to get in. He hadn't shaved for several days, since he arrived in the hospital, and he was an image of sickness and weakness. He said he had had to move to the hospital because they were all panicking about him there in New Marlborough and he couldn't eat anything. When he arrived at the hospital his legs were all swollen. "Look" he said, "film them", so I filmed them. "There will be a lot of pictures of me sick, I have always been sick. Doctors said I was dying of hunger; I lacked protein, so now they are feeding me protein". We sat silently for a minute or two. George: "So you have to take the train…". Me: "At three o'clock. I have time." Doctor (to the nurse): "Roll it." George: "Shigeko has gone back?" Me: "No, she is in New York. She is still here." George: "Anthology (Film Archive) should get more money…" Me: "I am working on it." George: "This may take a long time." (referring to his surgery). Me: "As they say, it's not easy to kill a man." George: "Nothing to hurry now…" (He laughs.) The nurse began pushing the bed towards the surgery rooms. So he stretched out his hand and I said, "Tai laikykies" in Lithuanian 'hang on', more or less - and he gave me a weak smile and they wheeled him away.

LANDSBERGIS: Remember, that in Lithuania only Lithuanian laws apply, and defend them when you are persecuted. Do not acknowledge that others can convict you for faithfulness to Lithuania.

MEKAS: May 9 1978. A note I found on the table when I came home to eat, reads: "Dear Jonas, George died this afternoon. Nyole will probably call you. We are on the tenth floor, love Hollis and Oona".

MEKAS: May 11 1978. Billie brought the Purcell and Monteverdi tapes that George himself had selected for this occasion. I set up the tape recorder in the chapel and we played twenty-five minutes of George's favorite music. It was very sad now to listen to this music.

VI

Sakykime spaudai, kad mes ji˛ supratome
sakykime spaudai, kad mes viska˛ padare˙me

Let's tell the press we did everything
Let's tell the press we understood him

(Ben Vautier)

Mano sunus plaktuku
ir kirviais sudauze fortepijona

My son destroyed a piano
with a hammer and axes

(Leokadija Maciunas)

LANDSBERGIS: Hold your hand out to the persecuted and help those close to you and turn away from the spy and the informer. Value your honour, we will be saved, we will regain Lithuania's honour.

MEKAS: Later we decided to have a walk through SoHo, to relax. We just had to walk it out. He was so good, and even when he was suffering, he tried not to impose his suffering on others. He used to retreat to our back room, curl up on the bed, and suffer by himself. He said it hurt less when he curled up into the baby-in-the-womb position.

Claudio Monteverdi
ZEFIRO TORNA (1632)

Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti
l'aer fa grato e'il pié discioglie a l'onde
e, mormoranda tra le verdi fronde,
fa danzar al bel suon su'l prato i fiori.
Inghirlandato il crin Fillide e Clori
note temprando lor care e gioconde;
e da monti e da valli ime e profond
raddoppian l'armonia gli antri canori.
Sorge più vaga in ciel l'aurora, e'l sole,
Sparge più luci d'or; più puro argento
fregia di Teti il bel ceruleo manto...

The West Wind returns, and with gentle cadences
makes the air grateful, and melts one's step in its billows
and, murmuring among the green leafy branches,
makes dance to its lovely sound the flowers on the meadow.
With garlanded hair Phyllis and Clorinda
are sweetly tempered and joyous;
and from mountains and from valleys, from peaks and depths,
the singing of caverns re-echoes the harmony.
The dawn rises in the heavens more mildly, and the sun
spreads a more golden light; a purer silver
adorns the lovely blue mantle of the sea...

(Ottavio Rinuccini)


PART 5. DINING ROOM. STILL LIFE.

NEVER FOREVER

George Maciunas
POTATOE AND FLOUR EVENT from FLUXFEST (1973)
vodka pipeline organ, vodka jelly, pancakes, dancer, actor, devices

Menu

Three Types of Pancakes

  • Žemaitiški Blynai (Lowlander Pancakes) $7/$5
  • Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce and Cream $5/$3
  • Crêpes suzette (Crêpes with orange & grand marnier & butter sauce) $5/$3

Vodka Jelly

Organ Roll Barrels

  • Zefiro Torna
  • Gerkit, Gerkit, Broliukai

EXIT VIA REAR DOOR TO LANEWAY


SLAVE PIANOS & ASTRA / MACIUNAS & LANDSBERGIS

The Lithuanian origins of Astra, through its founding in 1951 as a women's orchestra by the immigrant conductor Asta Flack, are just one of many coincident factors of this collaboration with Slave Pianos – a joint project that has evolved over some years, and is as much "about" the multi- form natures of our two groups as it is a representation of the two extraordinary Lithuanian figures of Maciunas and Landsbergis or an attempt at realizing the metaphorical power of their interactions in their diversely dissident lives.

Slave Pianos' work since 1998 itself deals with overlappings, coincidings and transferrals. Made up of four artists from visual and acoustic spheres, the group has produced multiple explorations and re-workings of the last century's boundary-crossings between art and performance, a labyrinthine heritage reaching back to early expressionist and futurist manifestations and taken up into the post-Cage Fluxus movement of which George Maciunas was the leading proponent. Slave Pianos performances and installations have gained a wide profile, extending from the National Gallery of Australia to Los Angeles, New York and several European centres. In 2001 the Frankfurt publisher Revolver produced a book of critical essays about their work (Pianology and Other Works) as part of a larger package (Slave Pianos: A Diagnosis) containing an audio 'triumvirate' on vinyl, CD and cassette. In 2004 at the National Drama Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania they premiered their oratorio-theatre Two Lives in Flux and Vice Versa – the forerunner of this program's new work – with many Lithuanian participants including ex- President Landsbergis.

Dissident Consonances is an assemblage of sounds and sights, texts and actions, experienced across five distinct 'genres' of presentation in different spaces of the building. Its materials radiate from the specific – the tale and testimonies of its two central figures; to the general – artifacts of its background in consonance with both Slave Pianos' and Astra's performance traditions; and to the unique also – the moment when Alena Karazijiene, the sister of Vytautas Landsbergis and a longtime resident of Melbourne, performs her brother's Spatial Poem No.5.

Extending from Slave Pianos' trademark mechanized piano in the foyer, the music of the program surrounds the Astra Choir with its collection of early and modern keyboard instruments, previously at the former Music Department of La Trobe University, and here used in different configurations in the two new choral works by Slave Pianos composers Rohan Drape and Neil Kelly. (The keyboard arc does not stop there, but returns in Part 5 into the Slave Pianos domain with Danius Kesminas's vodka organ.) Influences in common form further consonances between Astra and Slave Pianos, as represented in Keith Humble's and George Brecht's music-theatrical events that originated in the same Zeitgeist as George Maciunas.

The early-Baroque compositions of Monteverdi and Purcell were cherished by Maciunas as the last music of any worth. They are preceded by two mediaeval pieces, heard by the audience en passant - the famous 14th-century Lament of Tristan (organ portative) and the Organ Estampie from the Robertsbridge Codex (played on regal), the earliest published keyboard work to survive. A further composer of Monteverdi's time, Jean deMacque, inspired the title of the whole work with his Extravagant Consonances, extraordinary and harmonically experimental keyboard pieces that reflect his membership in the household of Gesualdo in Naples. Claudio Monteverdi in his music from the Fourth Book of Madrigals onwards develops new rhythms and harmonies that express a dissenting spirit between the singer and the surrounding world. His duo Zefiro torna for two tenors over a dancing, unchanging bass phrase depicts the west wind blowing across and transforming a natural and human landscape; it formed the title and part of the soundtrack for the film about Maciunas, and is here performed live in an adapted version for mixed choir. Henry Purcell's music followed closely in Monteverdi's heritage, giving each segment of text its own expressive force, frequently heard in overlaid patterns. "In the midst of life we are in death" provides a peerless display of dissonances and chromatic expression that, as with Maciunas, were to become consonant with the composer's own external circumstances. Written as part of the funeral music for Queen Mary in January 1695, it was performed again at Purcell's own funeral in December that year, following his death at the age of 36.

JMcC.


GEORGE MACIUNAS: 1931 born Jurgis Mačiūnas in Kaunas, Lithuania. 1945 Lithuanian Displaced Persons Camp in Hanau, Germany. 1948 emigrates to United States. 1949-1960 studies art, graphics and architecture at Cooper Union School of Art, architecture and musicology at Carnegie Institute of Technology, art history at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. 1961 changes name to George Maciunas after a political misunderstanding with Board of Directors of the Lithuanian Society of New York. 1962-1967 initiates Fluxus, first European Fluxfest, editions and multiples. 1968-1969 inception of Fluxhouse Cooperative Building Project, real-estate activities, debt. 1970-1974 Fluxgames, and food events. 1975 Feud with Attorney General of New York, loses eye and suffers permanent body damage in Mafia attack. 1976 Flux-Labyrinth with Lary Miller in Berlin. 1978 dies, New York.

VYTAUTAS LANDSBERGIS: 1932 born Kaunas, Lithuania. 1944 Lithuania invaded by Russia. 1955 graduates from the Lithuanian Conservatory of Music. 1966 composes Spatial Poem No. 5. 1978 professorships at both Lithuanian Conservatory of Music & Vilnius Pedagogical University. 1988 founding member of Sajudis, Lithuanian pro-independence political movement. 1990 election to the Supreme Council of Lithuania, declares Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union, first Soviet Republic to do so. Holds constitutional authority under temporary constitution. Soviet Union imposes economic blockade. 1993 founding member of political party Tėvynes Sąjunga. 1996 wins parliamentary elections, speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament until 2000. 1997 unsuccessful presidential campaign. 2004 elected to the European Parliament, Brussels.

SIX CHORUSES (2007): The Six Choruses use texts taken from Maciunas, his mother Leokadija, Landsbergis and Ben Vautier - a member of the Fluxus circle. The disparate texts result in choruses of stylistic diversity that aim to bridge the lives of the two protagonists. Inspired by the Jonas Mekas film technique, seen here in Zefiro Torna, they aim also address the universal via the personal.

WEDDING SENTENCES (2007): In early February 1978, at the age of 47, with inoperable cancer & in unbearable pain, George Maciunas was married. On February 25th, at the apartment of Olga Adorno, he performed the Flux- Wedding. Four choirs laugh, unobtrusively, a performance - HA HA - sequences of implausible chords. Celeste, organ & cello adopt, examine, reiterate, invert, re-order, delineate, catalogue. A computer traverses medical data sets, an MRI scan of a brain aneurism, a biological model of cancer cell growth. Fragments from Jonas Mekas' diary are spoken in repeating patterns – "… and George, laughing, laughing at it all, including Warhol, and creating in its place his own fragile life, totally inconsequential, unimportant, a world of games, little boxes, puzzles, jokes, all in praise of nothingness."

VODKA PIPELINE ORGAN (2006): Vodka Sans Frontières derives from the recent discoveries of illegal underground pipelines pumping vodka into Lithuania. There have been no less than 6 such vodka pipelines uncovered and, in the brief period since Lithuania's admission to the European Union, the phenomenon has escalated. The most recent discovery took place in April this year when a 150 metre-long pipe running under a river and across the border between Belarus and Lithuania was uncovered in the town of Eisiskes before the "aqua vitae" began flowing. There have been numerous such reports by reputable news agencies (Reuters, 10 December 2004) that demonstrate that vodka does not recognise political borders.


REFERENCES:

Jon Hendricks Fluxus Codex: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, Detroit, Michigan Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1988. 616 pp.

Emmett Williams and Ann Noël (ed.) Mr Fluxus: A Collective Portrait of George Maciunas 1931-1978 Thames & Hudson, New York, 1997. 352pp.

Vytautas Landsbergis Laisvės Byla Lietuvos Aido Publishers, Vilnius, 1992. 329 pp.

Vytautas Landsbergis Atgavę Viltį Pasaulio Lietuvių Bendruomenė Publisher, Toronto, 1991. 227pp.


Thanks to Jieva Arienė, Nick Girling, Linas Kaladė, Alena Karazijienė OAM, Rainer Kelly, Ruta Kemežys, Audrone Kesminas, Andrius Lipsys, Margaret Lloyd, Mars McMillan, Helen Saniga, Dugald Sinclair, Petra Stegmann, Rimas Strunga, Nerija Žemkalnis, Arena Theatre, Eleventh Hour Theatre, Lithuanian House.

Astra concerts receive support from: the Commonwealth government through the Australia Council; Arts Victoria, a division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet; the William Angliss Trust; Diana Gibson, and private donors.

ASTRA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
Chair: Anna Gifford
Manager: Bobbie Hodge
Musical Director: John McCaughey
PO Box 365, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051, Australia
ABN 41 255 197 577
Tel: (3)9326 5424
email: astra@connexus.net.au
web: www.astramusic.org.au

Slave Pianos, *Never Forever: Fluxus Was a Sajudis Trick!*, Programme Text

023-001

Panel Discussion

Networks between West and East

House of World Cultures | John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 | 10557 Berlin | Art Forum Berlin | Messedamm 22 | 14055 Berlin | 27 – 29 Sept 2007 | In English | Free admission, if not stated otherwise

Panel III: Fluxus is not dead, it just smells funny – Fluxus Strategies in Contemporary Art?

Sat 29 Sept | 3 pm | Art Forum Berlin | admission Art Forum 15/10 €

Presentations and discussion:

  • Azorro (PL)
  • Nomeda + Gediminas Urbonas (LT)
  • Slave Pianos (AUS)

The conference is a joint event of Künstlerhaus Bethanien and House of World Cultures in cooperation with Art Forum Berlin, the Polish Institute in Berlin, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Czech Centre Czechpoint, the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania.

Slave Pianos, *Never Forever: Fluxus Was a Sajudis Trick!*, Programme Text

NEVER FOREVER: Fluxus Was A Sajudis Trick!* or: CheckMate / FluxWake for Rimvydas Survila / George Maciunas or: Chairman George Maciunas & President Vytautas Landsbergis


  1. d4 Nf6 George Brecht Comb Music (Comb Event) (1960-63) choir
  2. Nc3 d5 Larry Miller Fluxus Vortex (1994) narrator I should perhaps start... Larry Miller Fruit and Vegetable Chess (Preliminary, Date Unknown)
  3. Bg5Nbd7 Claudio Monteverdi Lidia Spina Del Mio Core (1607) choir Lydia, thorn in my heart...
  4. e3 c5 M.K.Ciurlionis Vienam Kiemely (1905) harpsichord
  5. Nf3 Qa5 Nam June Paik 2 x Mini Giant(1991) narrator The East European revolution produced... Vytautas Landsbergis Spatial Poem No. 5 Chess (1972)
  6. Bxf6 Nxf6 Claudio Monteverdi Lidia Spina Del Mio Core (1607)
  7. Bb5+ Bd7 Philip Corner Carrot Chew Performance (1964) choir
  8. Bxd7+ Nxd7 Eric Anderson Fax-Letter to Emmett Williams (1993) narrator There was also a copy of a letter... George Maciunas Color Balls in Bottle Board Chess (1966)
  9. O-O e6 Henry Purcell Pavan in G minor Z751 (c.1680) violin, violin, 'cello, harpsichord
  10. e4 dxe4 Nam June Paik A Short Trip on the Electronic Superhighway with Nam June Paik (1993) narrator Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania... Vytautas Landsbergis Spatial Poem No. 5 Chess (1972)
  11. Nxe4 Be7 M.K.Ciurlionis Ar Vejai Pute (1905) harpsichord
  12. d5 exd5 Giovanni Gabrieli Donna Leggiadra e Bella (1595) choir
  13. Qxd5 Qc7 Vytautas Landsbergis Spatial Poem No.3 (1966) choir
  14. Rad1 Nb6 Geoffrey Hendricks Manuscript, New York (1994) narrator He also devised... Takako Saito Nut and Bolt Chess (1965)
  15. Qf5 O-O Henry Purcell Sonata [Chacony] in G minor Z730 (c.1680) violin, violin, 'cello, harpsichord
  16. Nfg 5g6 Jean de Macque Consonanze Stravaganti (1610) harpsichord
  17. Qh3 h5 Vytautas Landsbergis Correspondence and Manifesto (1962-1966) narrator New music is non-music and anti-art... Vytautas Landsbergis Spatial Poem No. 5 Chess (1972)
  18. f4 Rad8 M.K.Ciurlionis Vienam Kiemely (1905)
  19. Qf3 Rxd1 Claudio Monteverdi Deh Chi Tace Il Bel Pensero(1607) choir Alas, now silent...
  20. Rxd1 Rd8 Alison Knowles Nivea Cream Piece (1962) choir
  21. g3 Nc4 Alison Knowles Manuscript (1980) narrator This was truly a Fluxus vehicle... Takako Saito Weight Chess (1965)
  22. b3 Nd6 Claudio Monteverdi Deh Chi Tace Il Bel Pensero (1607)
  23. Nxd6 Rxd6 M.K.Ciurlionis Ar Vejai Pute (1905)
  24. Ne4 Rxd1+ SLAVE PIANOS Never Forever: Fluxus was a Sajudis Trick!(2007) narrator With the assistance of his childhood friend... Vytautas Landsbergis Spatial Poem No. 5 Chess (1972)
  25. Qxd1 Qc6 Claudio Monteverdi Zefiro Torna (1632) violin,violin,'cello,harpsichord The west wind returns...
  26. Qd3 Bf6 Henry Purcell Pavan in G minor Z751 (c.1680)
  27. c3 b6 Nam June Paik One for Violin Solo (1962) violin
  28. Qd5 Bd4+ Tamas St. Auby Fluxus-Art-Life-Politics (2007) narrator This unattainability of Fluxus... Henry Flynt & George Maciunas Communists Must Give Revolutionary Leadership in Chess (1966)
  29. cxd4 Qb5 Slave Pianos Chorale, Two Lives In Flux: & Vice Versa(2004) harpsichord Since Monteverdi, nothing of great interest...
  30. Qe5 Henry Purcell Funeral Sentences (1695) mezzo-soprano and 'cello Suffer us not at out last hour... Black resigns

Afterglow: performance art and photography

Slave Pianos is a collective of artists who have come together around a shared interest in forms of performance art that have musical or aural components. The symbolic heart of their practice is the piano, which they treat as a kinetic sculpture that can be used to re-animate the history of avant-garde music and sound art within gallery spaces.

Drawing on archival research, they create musical scores and recordings of performances that were originally improvised as one-off events. They also manufacture a range of pseudo ephemera that assists in the re-animation process. This includes staged photographs that appear to document historic moments in art history. Some of these staged photographs of pretend historic events can be seen in this exhibition.

Slave Pianos incorporate photographs in their work in other ways. Afterglow includes an installation of posters, archival material, chess boards and a piano that each allude to the chess games played by members of Fluxus. Fluxus emerged in the 1960s and was a trans-national art movement that celebrated experimental, event-based approaches to creativity.

A central figure in the history of Fluxus is George Maciunas, who named and organised the movement. For Fluxus, playing chess was performance art. In this installation, photographs of the original Fluxus chess games/performance events form part of the stage for another performance event that is waiting to occur.

Stephen Zagala. From Afterglow: performance art and photography. PDF

Slave Pianos, *The Execution Protocol (I)*, Programme Text

024-005 024-005 024-005

Slave Pianos, *The Execution Protocol (I)*, Programme Text

024-007

Slave Pianos, *The Execution Protocol (II)*, Programme Text

              |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Laurie ANDERSON                                           | | title:                It's not the bullet that kills you, it's the hole (for    | |                       Chris Burden)                                             | | year:                 1977                                                      | | biographical details: American, performance artist, b.Glen Ellyn, IL 1947       | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   6'36''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 1 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 4679                                                          | | no. of events: 5400                                                             | | execution time (ms): 391011                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #51 #6f                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Evgeny ASSE                                               | | secondary author:     & V. FISHKIN & D. GUTOFF                                  | | title:                Music-Hall Whistling Performance                          | | year:                 1995                                                      | | biographical details: Russian, installationists & painter, b. Moscow 1946 &     | |                       1946 & 1960                                               | | transcription for:    String Quartet; Computer operated piano and tesla coil    | | recording duration:   1'47''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 2 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 191                                                           | | no. of events: 768                                                              | | execution time (ms): 27826                                                      | | terminal event: #81 #27 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       John BALDESSARI                                           | | title:                Throwing a Ball Once to get 3 Melodies and 15 Chords      | | year:                 1973                                                      | | biographical details: American, photographer, b. National City, CA 1931         | | transcription for:    Trumpet and accordion; Computer operated piano and        | |                       tesla coil                                                | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 3 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 15                                                            | | no. of events: 84                                                               | | execution time (ms): 28000                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #4d #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Joseph BEUYS                                              | | secondary author:     & Nam June PAIK                                           | | title:                In Memoriam George Maciunas                               | | year:                 1978                                                      | | biographical details: German, sculptor, b. Krefeld 1921; d. 1986; Korean,       | |                       sculptor, b. Seoul 1932; d. 2006                          | | biographical sketch:  Joseph BEUYS maintained a close association with          | |                       Fluxus but was never actually a Fluxus artist. He took    | |                       part in various Fluxus activities before developing       | |                       his own performances which stressed fixed actions on      | |                       his own body in contrast to the anti-individuality        | |                       that Maciunas promoted. Through performance Beuys         | |                       began to expand sculptural ideas using noise and sound    | |                       as artistic materials. For Beuys music moved between      | |                       the extremes of silence and noise. In his piano pieces    | |                       Beuys would often use techniques and devices to           | |                       restrain or mute the instrument. Nam June PAIK was a      | |                       central figure in Fluxus activities in Europe and         | |                       later America. While experimenting in his own             | |                       performative practice he completed a masters degree on    | |                       Stockhausen. Invitations to Flux concerts were issued     | |                       by Paik and he was the central conduit that connected     | |                       visual artists and composers. His own compositions,       | |                       defined as hot Fluxus, contain strong sexual              | |                       suggestions often directed at the musical instrument      | |                       and most famously at his collaborator Charlotte           | |                       Moorman.                                                  | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; String Quartet; Computer         | |                       operated piano and tesla coil                             | | recording duration:   0'41''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 4 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 114                                                           | | no. of events: 326                                                              | | execution time (ms): 22219                                                      | | terminal event: #81 #39 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Christian BOLTANSKI                                       | | title:                Songs that have been sung by Christian Boltanski          | | year:                 1944-46                                                   | | biographical details: French, photographer, b. Paris 1944                       | | transcription for:    Harmonica and accordion; Computer operated piano and      | |                       tesla coil                                                | | recording duration:   3'14''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 5 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 104                                                           | | no. of events: 104                                                              | | execution time (ms): 26515                                                      | | terminal event: #81 #3b #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Louise BOURGEOIS                                          | | title:                Otte                                                      | | year:                 1995                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. Paris 1911                         | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   4'38''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 6 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 5840                                                          | | no. of events: 7370                                                             | | execution time (ms): 214666                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #42 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       George BRECHT                                             | | title:                Comb Music (Comb Event)                                   | | year:                 1959-62                                                   | | biographical details: American, sculptor & fluxist, b. Halfway, OR 1925 d.      | |                       2008                                                      | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; String Quartet; Tesla coil       | | recording duration:   0'08''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 7 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 80                                                            | | no. of events: 158                                                              | | execution time (ms): 5125                                                       | | terminal event: #81 #3c #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Lillian BUDD                                              | | secondary author:     Merryln Tweedie                                           | | title:                Studies For Existence                                     | | year:                 1998                                                      | | biographical details: New Zealand, sculptor, b. Christchurch 1953               | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   1'02''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 8 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 801                                                           | | no. of events: 5840                                                             | | execution time (ms): 48000                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #6d #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Chris BURDEN                                              | | title:                Velvet Water                                              | | year:                 1974                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. Boston, MA 1946                    | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; Turntables                       | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 9 of 56                                                               | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 359                                                           | | no. of events: 2764                                                             | | execution time (ms): 118729                                                     | | terminal event: #90 #4c #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       David BYRNE                                               | | title:                Artists Only                                              | | year:                 1978                                                      | | biographical details: American, new wave musician, b. Dumbarton, Scotland       | |                       1952                                                      | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   4'48''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 10 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2728                                                          | | no. of events: 3088                                                             | | execution time (ms): 232879                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #34 #5e                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Euegene CARCHESIO                                         | | secondary author:     & The Lost Domain                                         | | title:                Truth and the abstract blues                              | | year:                 Unknown                                                   | | biographical details: Australian, collagist and drawer , b. Brisbane, QLD       | |                       1960                                                      | | transcription for:    Tesla coil                                                | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 11 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 285                                                           | | no. of events: 286                                                              | | execution time (ms): 190510                                                     | | terminal event: #81 #37 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Gunter CHRISTMANN                                         | | title:                Audio Plastik No. 4                                       | | year:                 1974-77                                                   | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Berlin 1936                       | | biographical sketch:  With a Fluxist sense of impromptu circumstance, in the    | |                       1970's Christmann began to go beyond his rigorous,        | |                       optically accentuated abstract compositions. 'Jews        | |                       Harp and Traffic' has nothing to do with formal           | |                       musical composition, but rather comes from a deeply       | |                       registered psychological sense of the texture of the      | |                       modern city. Elwyn Lynn has described this feeling as:    | |                       "...of the 'not-quite' or 'kinship' order: they are       | |                       not quite about joyousness, melancholy, release,          | |                       hesitancy or shyness; they are akin to expansive ease     | |                       or cautious confrontation, they embody notions of a       | |                       veiled life of oblique and subtle suggestions and of a    | |                       tremulous untroubled uncertainty".                        | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   1'40''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 12 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 69                                                            | | no. of events: 280                                                              | | execution time (ms): 20000                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #32 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Domenico de CLARIO                                        | | title:                From The Opaque                                           | | year:                 1994-95                                                   | | biographical details: Australian, sculptor, b. Trieste 1947                     | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   2'23''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 13 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 440                                                           | | no. of events: 968                                                              | | execution time (ms): 117599                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #32 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Anthony CLARK                                             | | title:                Intermezzo                                                | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Canberra, ACT 1954                | | biographical sketch:  Clark was a founding participator in the activities of    | |                       Anti-Music beginning in 1979. His involvement             | |                       coincided with a renaissance in his own art practice      | |                       brought about through an interest in classicism. With     | |                       Nixon he began to explore operatic forms which Clark      | |                       described as Anti-Music/opera. Clark initiated operas     | |                       in Latin although he had never studied the language.      | |                       This curious practice could be explained as the           | |                       linguistic equivalent to Anti-Music's stated              | |                       preference for non-musicianship. By using the             | |                       intonation of Latin as a shell devoid of meaning,         | |                       Clark revealed a new musical form that distorted          | |                       classical models. Similarly he performed existing         | |                       musical compositions with only the most basic             | |                       knowledge of notation.                                    | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   4'16''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 14 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3174                                                          | | no. of events: 6036                                                             | | execution time (ms): 249218                                                     | | terminal event: #90 #56 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Anthony CLARK                                             | | secondary author:     as The Living Rococo                                      | | title:                Untitled                                                  | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Canberra, ACT 1954                | | biographical sketch:  Clark was a founding participator in the activities of    | |                       Anti-Music beginning in 1979. His involvement             | |                       coincided with a renaissance in his own art practice      | |                       brought about through an interest in classicism. With     | |                       Nixon he began to explore operatic forms which Clark      | |                       described as Anti-Music/opera. Clark initiated operas     | |                       in Latin although he had never studied the language.      | |                       This curious practice could be explained as the           | |                       linguistic equivalent to Anti-Music's stated              | |                       preference for non-musicianship. By using the             | |                       intonation of Latin as a shell devoid of meaning,         | |                       Clark revealed a new musical form that distorted          | |                       classical models. Similarly he performed existing         | |                       musical compositions with only the most basic             | |                       knowledge of notation.                                    | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; Brass ensemble; Computer         | |                       operated piano and tesla coil                             | | recording duration:   1'49''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 15 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1501                                                          | | no. of events: 10212                                                            | | execution time (ms): 290356                                                     | | terminal event: #84 #2d #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Willie COLE                                               | | title:                Carousel                                                  | | year:                 1996                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. New Jersey 1955                    | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   5'06''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 16 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3334                                                          | | no. of events: 3808                                                             | | execution time (ms): 303895                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #5f #2f                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Philip CORNER                                             | | title:                Carrot Chew Performance                                   | | year:                 1964                                                      | | biographical details: American, composer & trombonist, b. New York, NY 1933     | | biographical sketch:  A musician associated with Fluxus who also produced       | |                       graphic forms, collages and poetry, Philip Corner's       | |                       scores and graphic notations are open to multiple         | |                       interpretations and can be realized in modes of           | |                       activity other than music such as theatre and dance.      | |                       However, his work is always rooted to a statement of      | |                       intent that is so encompassing and inclusive that         | |                       there is no doubt in the performer's mind about what      | |                       (and why) he is doing when he does something (or          | |                       nothing).                                                 | | transcription for:    Solo violin                                               | | recording duration:   1'55''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 17 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 154                                                           | | no. of events: 226                                                              | | execution time (ms): 27586                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #32 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Martin CREED                                              | | title:                Work No. 117                                              | | year:                 1995                                                      | | biographical details: Scottish, sculptor, b. Wakefield 1966                     | | transcription for:    MIDI controller and sampler                               | | recording duration:   3'06''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 18 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 368                                                           | | no. of events: 676                                                              | | execution time (ms): 21989                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #3d #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Jean DUBUFFET                                             | | title:                Coq a L'oeil                                              | | year:                 1961                                                      | | biographical details: French, painter, b. Le Havre 1901; d. 1985                | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   0'40''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 19 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 765                                                           | | no. of events: 3199                                                             | | execution time (ms): 34359                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #59 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Marcel DUCHAMP                                            | | title:                La mariee mise a nu par ses celibataires                  | | year:                 1913                                                      | | biographical details: French, painter, b. Blainville-Crevon 1887; d. 1968       | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   0'19''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 20 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 22                                                            | | no. of events: 76                                                               | | execution time (ms): 12500                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #58 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Marcel DUCHAMP                                            | | title:                Musical Erratum                                           | | year:                 1913                                                      | | biographical details: French, painter, b. Blainville-Crevon 1887; d. 1968       | | biographical sketch:  Marcel Duchamp's 'Musical Erratum' of 1913, is the        | |                       first specific example of the exploitation of chance      | |                       to arrive at what might be described as a musical         | |                       composition. Described as a musical Readymade it is in    | |                       effect the application of Lewis Carroll's recipe for      | |                       chopping up an existing sentence and mixing its parts.    | |                       Composed with his sisters Yvonne and Magdeleine during    | |                       a New Year's visit to Rouen, Duchamp recalled this        | |                       event in 1951 as follows: "Each one of us drew as many    | |                       notes out of a hat as there were syllables in the         | |                       dictionary definition of the word imprimer                | |                       [empreinte], picked by chance." The notes were            | |                       inserted in the score in the order drawn, it is           | |                       thought that Duchamp's sisters who were both musicians    | |                       simply cut up a piano score to obtain the requisite       | |                       seventy-five notes. Writing on John Cage and his          | |                       circle, Henry Cowell points out several interesting       | |                       precedents for this procedure: "Various combinations      | |                       of chance and choice, preestablished or improvised,       | |                       are not without respectable musical precedent, in the     | |                       tala and raga systems of India, and possibly, on a        | |                       less serious plane, in the music of Mozart. Mozart is     | |                       said to have composed a set of contra-dances in which     | |                       dice are to be thrown to determine the order in which     | |                       the measures are to appear...(He) composed and set        | |                       down all the measures that might be called for by the     | |                       dice; a typical collection of opening measures for the    | |                       first cast, a typical set of second measures for the      | |                       second cast, and so on." In the esoteric tradition,       | |                       music is an allegory for the synthesis of polarities,     | |                       the union of opposites thus we may recognise in           | |                       Musical Erratum a sacred ceremony - the hierosgamos -     | |                       that involves two archetypal polarities: the Virgin       | |                       (represented here by Duchamp's two sisters) and the       | |                       Bachelor (the composer of the music).                     | | transcription for:    String Quartet and computer operated piano                | | recording duration:   3'22''                                                    | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 21 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 691                                                           | | no. of events: 3708                                                             | | execution time (ms): 220250                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #43 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Phil EDWARDS                                              | | title:                Hard Rubbish Drive By                                     | | year:                 1998                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, performance artist, b. unknown                | | biographical sketch:  Dr Philip EDWARDS was the former director the Museum      | |                       of Dirt. Hard Rubbish Drive By was a work for             | |                       irreverent guitars, slack strung and dirty.               | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   0'58''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 22 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 26                                                            | | no. of events: 76                                                               | | execution time (ms): 7500                                                       | | terminal event: #80 #28 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Matt FINNISH                                              | | title:                A Short Note                                              | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, rock band, f. Melbourne 1977                  | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   3'45''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 23 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3222                                                          | | no. of events: 3622                                                             | | execution time (ms): 238497                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #32 #5c                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Katharina FRITSCH                                         | | title:                Unken                                                     | | year:                 1990                                                      | | biographical details: German, sculptor, b. Essen 1956                           | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   2'31''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 24 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2539                                                          | | no. of events: 6536                                                             | | execution time (ms): 145588                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #2e #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Marco FUSINATO                                            | | title:                EP in E                                                   | | year:                 1997                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Melbourne, VIC 1964               | | biographical sketch:  Marco FUSINATO began composing from his interests in      | |                       rock, experimental and noise music. He sites the early    | |                       works of Glen Branca and the New York no-wave scene as    | |                       being particularly important to his practice. Fusinato    | |                       has developed a repertoire that investigates the          | |                       harmonic relationship between music and colour (pitch     | |                       and hue). To date his compositions have concentrated      | |                       on the primacy of the E chord and red, its harmonic       | |                       equivalent hue. These constant wavelengths - aural and    | |                       ocular - under amplification and feedback expand or       | |                       cancel nodal/anti-nodal characteristics thereby           | |                       creating kinaesthetic interference.                       | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; Brass ensemble; Computer         | |                       operated piano and tesla coil                             | | recording duration:   3'05''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 25 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1432                                                          | | no. of events: 5722                                                             | | execution time (ms): 319431                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #34 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Beck HANSEN                                               | | secondary author:     as Beck                                                   | | title:                Devil's Haircut                                           | | year:                 1996                                                      | | biographical details: American, musician, b. Los Angeles, CA 1970               | | biographical sketch:  From his scavenging and free punning Dada lyrics to       | |                       his performative stage events, Beck Hansen's work         | |                       crosses the boundaries of art and rock. His Fluxus        | |                       grandfather Al Hansen, permeates both his visual and      | |                       musical styles. According to Beck, Al Hansen was 'the     | |                       glue' that connected many of the artists associated       | |                       with radical performance movements in the 1950's and      | |                       1960's. As a result, this gregarious figure, who          | |                       refused to make-work in conventional forms, has become    | |                       largely invisible amongst his Fluxus contemporaries       | |                       (George Brecht once described him as a graphic artist     | |                       and a bum). Beck, picking up on his grandfather's         | |                       penchant for cut and paste collage in his mix up of       | |                       samples and styles, continues the Fluxus traditions of    | |                       irreverence, suspicion of artistic solemnity and          | |                       scavenging instinct.                                      | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   0'43''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 26 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 38                                                            | | no. of events: 112                                                              | | execution time (ms): 32000                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #47 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Rolf HARRIS                                               | | title:                Australian traditional                                    | | year:                 Unknown                                                   | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Bassendean, WA 1930               | | biographical sketch:  Harris established himself in London during the           | |                       swinging sixties. His multi-disciplinary approach         | |                       encompassed painting performance and song as              | |                       children's entertainment for film and television. The     | |                       Rolf Harris Show, broadcast extensively on British        | |                       Commonwealth television from 1969, presented a range      | |                       of performative acts varying from musical repertoire      | |                       scored for voice and other vernacular instrumentation.    | |                       Most notable was his 'wobble board', a thin wooden        | |                       sheet which oscillates kinetically producing rhythmic     | |                       accompaniment. Harris' faux-naive appropriations and      | |                       recuperations of Indigenous and folk Australian,          | |                       nationalist, masculinist and 'pop' themes were worked     | |                       into an intermedia variety concert format, placing him    | |                       with Bartok and Shostakovich in the mainstream Modern     | |                       European tradition of progressive pan-cultural            | |                       assimilation, with refracted yet ultimately               | |                       determinant political reference.                          | | transcription for:    Brass ensemble                                            | | recording duration:   1'26''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 27 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 76                                                            | | no. of events: 988                                                              | | execution time (ms): 106666                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #27 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Ronnie van HOUT                                           | | secondary author:     + Into The Void                                           | | title:                Bank Roll                                                 | | year:                 1998                                                      | | biographical details: New Zealand, sculptor, b. Christchurch 1962               | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   3'10''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 28 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2150                                                          | | no. of events: 23116                                                            | | execution time (ms): 215399                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #43 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Joe JONES                                                 | | title:                Flux Music Box                                            | | year:                 1965                                                      | | biographical details: American, instrument maker, b. New York, NY 1934; d.      | |                       1993                                                      | | biographical sketch:  In 1962 the Fluxus artist Joe Jones began                 | |                       experimenting with the construction of mechanical         | |                       musical instruments. More accurately described as         | |                       kinetic sound sculptures they avoid precise techniques    | |                       for reproduction in favor of a playful self-composing     | |                       element. The mechanics of his machines independently      | |                       determine pitch, dynamics and rhythm. The resultant       | |                       music is completely free and follows its own musical      | |                       impulses undisturbed by the human hand.                   | | transcription for:    String Quartet; Turntables                                | | recording duration:   1'40''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 29 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 10                                                            | | no. of events: 18                                                               | | execution time (ms): 12500                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #51 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Ilya KABAKOV                                              | | secondary author:     + Vladimir TARASOV                                        | | title:                Olga Georgievna, Something is Burning                     | | year:                 1993                                                      | | biographical details: Ukranian, installationist, b. Dniepropetrovsk 1933        | | transcription for:    String quartet, computer operated piano and radios        | | recording duration:   2'07''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 30 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 935                                                           | | no. of events: 8046                                                             | | execution time (ms): 97773                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #30 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Mike KELLEY                                               | | secondary author:     + Destroy All Monsters                                    | | title:                Raga                                                      | | year:                 1993                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. Wayne, Michigan 1954               | | biographical sketch:  Mike Kelley cultivated his musical interests during       | |                       the early 1970's while enrolled at the University of      | |                       Michigan, Ann Arbor. During this time he became aware     | |                       of Fluxus and the musical experimentation of West         | |                       Coast composers Harry Parch, New York Minimalist          | |                       LaMonte Young, the noise music of Karlheinz               | |                       Stockhausen, the free jazz of Sun Ra and the Chicago      | |                       Art Ensemble. In Detroit he co-founded the band           | |                       Destroy All Monsters at a time when rock bands like       | |                       The Stooges and the MC5 were redefining performance       | |                       parameters, exploring links with free jazz, radical       | |                       politics and rock and roll counter-culture as a site      | |                       for social experimentation. Kelley initially              | |                       approached these concerns through non-traditional         | |                       instrumentation, predominantly vacuum cleaners and        | |                       squeeze toys. The band blended experimental techniques    | |                       - particularly noise - with pop, a result of Kelley's     | |                       interest in rock and roll, particularly the outrageous    | |                       and ironic proto-punk bands formed in the Detroit         | |                       area.                                                     | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 31 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3565                                                          | | no. of events: 4831                                                             | | execution time (ms): 144723                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #1c #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Martin KERSELS                                            | | title:                Fax Machine                                               | | year:                 1995                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. Los Angeles, California 1960       | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   2'30''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 32 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2845                                                          | | no. of events: 9140                                                             | | execution time (ms): 136912                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #28 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Vitaly KOMAR                                              | | secondary author:     & Alexander MELAMID                                       | | title:                Music Writing - Passport                                  | | year:                 1976                                                      | | biographical details: Russian, dissident painters, b. Moscow 1943 & 1945        | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   1'27''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 33 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 474                                                           | | no. of events: 838                                                              | | execution time (ms): 4100474                                                    | | terminal event: #80 #40 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Thomas LAWSON                                             | | title:                Untitled                                                  | | year:                 1980                                                      | | biographical details: Scottish, painter, b. Scotland 1950                       | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   0'56''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 34 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1435                                                          | | no. of events: 1876                                                             | | execution time (ms): 48583                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #32 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Daniel MALONE                                             | | secondary author:     & Martin POPPERWELL                                       | | title:                The Strike Church                                         | | year:                 1990                                                      | | biographical details: New Zealand, sculptor, b. Greymouth 1970; New Zealand,    | |                       painter, b. unknown                                       | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   2'24''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 35 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1343                                                          | | no. of events: 15786                                                            | | execution time (ms): 134900                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #26 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Christian MARCLAY                                         | | title:                One Thousand Cycles                                       | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: American, turntablist,, b. San Rafael, California 1955    | | biographical sketch:  Christian Marclay emerged from the community of           | |                       concept-orientated sound artists active in the late       | |                       1970's. Having integrated his practice in the             | |                       tradition of the New York underground scene (fluxus,      | |                       punk, no wave) Marclay was drawn to the turntable as      | |                       the central form of instrumentation as defined by the     | |                       virtuoso DJ musicians of the early 1980's. Marclay's      | |                       personalised approach to the turntable and its            | |                       attendant vinyl is very much that of the                  | |                       structuralist/materialist. As turntablism established     | |                       itself around standardised instruments and traditional    | |                       forms, the art of the DJ devolved increasingly in         | |                       mannerist circles. By contrast Marclay's vinyl            | |                       collages (cut up records reglued together) and his        | |                       'disque topographique' (modified with paint and other     | |                       textured materials) redefine the very notion of what a    | |                       vinyl sound recording can be. Marclay also works with     | |                       prepared turntables - these customised instruments        | |                       allow him to create and improvise his music to a much     | |                       more personalised degree. One Thousand Cycles (1981),     | |                       contains rhythms created by the process of cutting        | |                       vinyl records into pieces and reconfiguring them in       | |                       different combinations. The stylus tracing over each      | |                       vinyl shard amplifies not only the sounds of the          | |                       original recording but the rhythmic pop as it jumps       | |                       unpredictably between cuts. Groove (1982), was created    | |                       from loops recorded from multiple copies of the same      | |                       seven inch single. They were composed directly on to      | |                       vinyl by sticking small dot stickers onto the record      | |                       which causes the needle to skip.                          | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   2'19''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 36 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 882                                                           | | no. of events: 3658                                                             | | execution time (ms): 115714                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #37 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Paul McCARTHY                                             | | title:                Santa's Bells                                             | | year:                 1997                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. Salt Lake City, Utah 1945          | | biographical sketch:  Paul McCarthy developed his musical interests             | |                       initially through the Destruction Arts Symposium in       | |                       London which included composers such as Gustav            | |                       Metzger, Wolf Vostell and Ralph Ortiz. In particular      | |                       his interest lay in the piano smashing performances       | |                       that reportably inspired The Who's guitar wrecking        | |                       stage antics. Additionally McCarthy followed the works    | |                       of the beat generation, the music of John Cage and        | |                       Karlheinz Stockhausen.                                    | | transcription for:    Violin and computer operated piano; Computer operated     | |                       piano and tesla coil                                      | | recording duration:   3'12''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 37 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2904                                                          | | no. of events: 18272                                                            | | execution time (ms): 164598                                                     | | terminal event: #81 #2d #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Bruce McLEAN                                              | | secondary author:     + H. M. V. DIODES                                         | | title:                Limpo-Wristo Poncho-Rocko                                 | | year:                 c.1980                                                    | | biographical details: Scottish, painter, b. Glasgow 1944                        | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   5'24''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 38 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 21938                                                         | | no. of events: 27392                                                            | | execution time (ms): 497644                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #22 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       John NIXON                                                | | secondary author:     as The Clock                                              | | title:                Red and Black                                             | | year:                 1980                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Sydney, NSW 1949                  | | biographical sketch:  John Nixon established his musical path via an            | |                       awareness of the punk music scene from the mid 1970's.    | |                       His retrieval of the DIY attitude first associated        | |                       with punk has become a mantra for his various             | |                       practices. Shunning the rock world system he developed    | |                       Anti-Music, an umbrella term for a number of anonymous    | |                       experimental music/art recording groups. The resultant    | |                       sounds showed the influence of Pere Ubu's first LP        | |                       ('The Modern Dance') along with Futurist, Dada and        | |                       film music. Solver was founded by Nixon in 1997 and is    | |                       named after a commercial brand of paint he once used      | |                       when executing monochrome paintings. Using classical      | |                       rock instrumentation the noise music produced             | |                       maintains the vitality of punk's energy but is            | |                       mediated by the sound excursions of bands like Sonic      | |                       Youth and by what could be called musique concrete, a     | |                       'truth to materials' approach which disavows all          | |                       musical virtuosity. The music develops as free            | |                       improvisation, each track being only briefly              | |                       considered prior to recording.                            | | transcription for:    Brass ensemble and narrator                               | | recording duration:   0'38''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 39 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 80                                                            | | no. of events: 1080                                                             | | execution time (ms): 39915                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #30 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       John NIXON                                                | | secondary author:     as Two Greys Becoming                                     | | title:                2                                                         | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Sydney, NSW 1949                  | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   2'40''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 40 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2657                                                          | | no. of events: 8512                                                             | | execution time (ms): 153600                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #26 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       John NIXON                                                | | secondary author:     as John Barleycorn as The Ballet                          | | title:                Alexander Alexandrovich Blok Pt 1                         | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Sydney, NSW 1949                  | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                | | recording duration:   8'05''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 41 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2901                                                          | | no. of events: 3104                                                             | | execution time (ms): 199218                                                     | | terminal event: #90 #68 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Yoko ONO                                                  | | title:                Walking on thin ice                                       | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Japanese, sculptor, b. Tokyo 1933                         | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   5'51''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 42 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 7741                                                          | | no. of events: 9164                                                             | | execution time (ms): 345764                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #47 #7e                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Dennis OPPENHEIM                                          | | title:                Broken Record Blues                                       | | year:                 1976                                                      | | biographical details: American, conceptualist, b. Electric City, Washington     | |                       1938                                                      | | transcription for:    Violin and computer operated piano                        | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 43 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1587                                                          | | no. of events: 7310                                                             | | execution time (ms): 86374                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #25 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Tony OURSLER                                              | | title:                Trance Emissions                                          | | year:                 1977-83                                                   | | biographical details: American, sculptor, b. New York, NY 1957                  | | transcription for:    Violin and computer operated piano                        | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 44 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1141                                                          | | no. of events: 7380                                                             | | execution time (ms): 121000                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #24 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Stephen PRINA                                             | | title:                No one calls me friend                                    | | year:                 1997                                                      | | biographical details: American, sculptor and educator, b. Galesburg, IL 1954    | | transcription for:    Anti-Jazz Ben-tet                                         | | recording duration:   4'31''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 45 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 4726                                                          | | no. of events: 5372                                                             | | execution time (ms): 234466                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #50 #5e                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Dieter ROTH                                               | | secondary author:     as Diter ROT                                              | | title:                Der Akkordeon Fluch                                       | | year:                 1981-2                                                    | | biographical details: Swiss, sculptor, b. Hannover 1930; d. 1998                | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   1'12''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 46 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3215                                                          | | no. of events: 6464                                                             | | execution time (ms): 81670                                                      | | terminal event: #90 #1f #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Kurt Merz SCHWITTERS                                      | | title:                Ursonate                                                  | | year:                 1922-32                                                   | | biographical details: German, painter, b. Hanover 1887; d. 1948                 | | biographical sketch:  Kurt Merz Schwitters was the great lyrical composer of    | |                       the Dada movement. He made music from incidental          | |                       social intercourse heard on the street. He saw the        | |                       city as being the contemporary trace of every living      | |                       moment. His Ursonate 1922-32 composed for solo voice      | |                       is grand opera-mechanical Wagner. Jackson Mac Low's       | |                       tribute Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters casts    | |                       Schwitters as a proto- Fluxus figure, indeed his word     | |                       poems precede the concrete poetry of such Fluxists as     | |                       Emmett Williams and Dick Higgins. Schwitters attempted    | |                       to extend Dada experimentation into everyday life, a      | |                       notion best described by his term 'Merz' foregrounding    | |                       the work of Kaprow, Cage, Oldenburg and later Fluxus      | |                       activities.                                               | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   7'32''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 47 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1349                                                          | | no. of events: 2446                                                             | | execution time (ms): 452000                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #47 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Pat SCULL                                                 | | title:                Hotel Kalifornia                                          | | year:                 1996                                                      | | biographical details: American, installationist, b. Anaheim, CA 1968            | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 48 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 6738                                                          | | no. of events: 10650                                                            | | execution time (ms): 235704                                                     | | terminal event: #90 #2b #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Alex SELENITSCH                                           | | title:                Toora Lee, Four Pieces for Bellow Organ                   | | year:                 1973                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, architect, b. Regensburg, Germany 1946        | | biographical sketch:  Alexander Selenitsch is a composer, poet, writer,         | |                       dilettante musician and architect who has sustained an    | |                       enduring collaboration between diverse arts practices.    | |                       The model for his method is the enduring collaboration    | |                       between the architect Le Courbusier and the composers     | |                       Iannis Xanakis and Edgar Vaerse. Toora Lee was named      | |                       after, and composed at, painter and sculptor Trevor       | |                       Vickers property near Foster in Gippsland 1973. Toora     | |                       Lee infuses the cold-Fluxus experiments of George         | |                       Brecht with the foreboding expansiveness of the           | |                       Australian landscape, in much the same way as Vickers     | |                       paintings in The Field exhibition of 1968 are             | |                       antipodean variants of abstract minimalist serial         | |                       paintings.                                                | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   1'09''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 49 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2                                                             | | no. of events: 12                                                               | | execution time (ms): 12500                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #34 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Ross SINCLAIR                                             | | secondary author:     + The Soup Dragons                                        | | title:                Head Gone Astray                                          | | year:                 1987                                                      | | biographical details: Scottish, sculptor, b. Glasgow 1966                       | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   3'02''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 50 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 6441                                                          | | no. of events: 8174                                                             | | execution time (ms): 178370                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #47 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       SOLVER                                                    | | secondary author:     Stephen BRAM & Marco FUSINATO & John NIXON & Rose         | |                       NOLAN                                                     | | title:                3                                                         | | year:                 1997                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, project group, f. Melbourne 1997              | | biographical sketch:  SOLVER, founded in 1997 by John Nixon, is a visual        | |                       artists project group dedicated to the exploration of     | |                       musical form. Founded by John Barleycorn, SOLVER          | |                       developed into a collaborative venture with fellow        | |                       artist Marco Fusinato. In 1979, Barleycorn began to       | |                       make sound cassettes with like minded artists under       | |                       the umbrella term Anti-Music. The music recorded is       | |                       best described as experimental (rock) and reflects        | |                       Barleycorn's first hand experience of the independent     | |                       punk music scene. Fusinato's music sketches a             | |                       formal/conceptual framework for improvised electric       | |                       guitar performance. Both artists privilege action over    | |                       technical virtuosity and although SOLVER have only        | |                       performed live once (their music exists almost            | |                       exclusively as recordings) their ancestry lies in the     | |                       Dada, Futurist and Fluxus performances.                   | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   1'08''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 51 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 2                                                             | | no. of events: 32                                                               | | execution time (ms): 2500                                                       | | terminal event: #80 #43 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Richard SWALLOW                                           | | title:                Operator                                                  | | year:                 1998                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, sculptor, b. San Remo, CA 1974                | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   1'16''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 52 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1827                                                          | | no. of events: 7920                                                             | | execution time (ms): 69947                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #31 #40                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       D. M. THOMAS                                              | | secondary author:     & Hany ARMANIOUS                                          | | title:                November 1996                                             | | year:                 1997                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Sydney, NSW 1968; Australian,     | |                       sculptor, b. Egypt 1962                                   | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano                                   | | recording duration:   1'44''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 53 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 3510                                                          | | no. of events: 4194                                                             | | execution time (ms): 98362                                                      | | terminal event: #80 #34 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Jean TINGUELY                                             | | title:                Relief Meta-mechanique Sonore I                           | | year:                 1955                                                      | | biographical details: Swiss, sculptor, b. Fribourg 1925; d. 1989                | | biographical sketch:  From his first musical experiments in 1955, Jean          | |                       Tinguely's machines were constructed as much for their    | |                       sonic potential as for their kinetic and sculptural       | |                       properties. Tinguely constructed and composed his         | |                       sound works out of the new sounds of the mechanical       | |                       age, an approach that links him with Pierre               | |                       Schaeffer's Musique Concrete and Luigi Russolo's The      | |                       Art of Noise. Some of his early percussive                | |                       compositions were performed with detritus from the        | |                       street, glasses, bottles, tuna fish and sardine cans.     | |                       Tinguely was never associated with the Fluxus             | |                       activities, his eccentric practice isolated him from      | |                       such collectivist movements.                              | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; String Quartet and computer      | |                       operated piano                                            | | recording duration:   3'15''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 54 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1277                                                          | | no. of events: 8574                                                             | | execution time (ms): 157500                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #26 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Peter TYNDALL                                             | | secondary author:     as Slave Guitars                                          | | title:                6                                                         | | year:                 1981                                                      | | biographical details: Australian, painter, b. Melbourne, VIC 1951               | | biographical sketch:  Peter Tyndall's interest in music crystallized in         | |                       1974, at a time when he began to loose faith in           | |                       abstract painting as a suitable base for his art          | |                       practice. Through composers such as John Cage, he         | |                       became fluent in cryptic Oriental thought, brief but      | |                       contained wisdom that constructed a world view            | |                       grounded in simple, everyday life. Having moved to        | |                       Bonza View Hepburn Springs in Victoria he became          | |                       involved in the Melbourne music scene of the late         | |                       1970's. During this time Tyndall performed his Slave      | |                       Guitars of the Art Cult, a sound/performance piece        | |                       that was a direct working out of his conceptual art       | |                       practice. In partnership with John Barleycorn and Tony    | |                       Clark he participated in the various activities of        | |                       Anti Music and contributed his Cagean notions of          | |                       chance, structure and everyday life in the associated     | |                       newsletter Pneumatic Drill.                               | | transcription for:    Computer operated piano; Brass ensemble                   | | recording duration:   1'12''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 55 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 11101                                                         | | no. of events: 21000                                                            | | execution time (ms): 236841                                                     | | terminal event: #80 #5e #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | primary author:       Bill VIOLA                                                | | title:                Buried Secrets                                            | | year:                 1995                                                      | | biographical details: American, video artist, b. Westbury, NY 1951              | | biographical sketch:  Bill Viola had an early interest in experimental music    | |                       that developed via the soundtracks to his pioneering      | |                       video installations. On study trips to Indonesia and      | |                       the Pacific Viola made recordings of traditional          | |                       music. As ethnographer of universal human experience,     | |                       notions of ritual - such as the rites of passage -        | |                       have themselves become the focus of his own work which    | |                       has diverse roots in Sufism, Christian mysticism and      | |                       Zen Buddhism. The acoustic potential of sound in space    | |                       lead him to explore the sonic characteristics of          | |                       Gothic cathedrals, Greek amphitheatres and ancient        | |                       architecture. Viola uses the acoustic properties of       | |                       site such as reverberance to envelop the viewer in a      | |                       total environment.                                        | | transcription for:    String Quartet                                            | | recording duration:   1'45''                                                    | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | |                                                                                 | | work no.: 56 of 56                                                              | | status: Idle                                                                    | | no. of data sets: 1986                                                          | | no. of events: 1988                                                             | | execution time (ms): 104654                                                     | | terminal event: #90 #40 #00                                                     | | wire data: #00 #00 #00                                                          | |                                                                                 | | [b]ack; [f]orward; [p]lay; [s]top; [h]ome; [e]nd; page[u]p; page[d]own          | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|                          

Slave Pianos, *Penalogical Pianology*, Programme Text

028-028 028-028

Slave Pianos, *The Fatal Score*, Programme Text

A28-029 A28-029

Slave Pianos, *The Fatal Score*, Programme Text

SLAVE PIANOS & the BIENNALE OF SYDNEY present:

An installation
PENALOGICAL PIANOLOGY: THE TIMBERS OF JUSTICE
As Enacted Upon the Fatal Shore, 1788-2010

&

a Multi-Stage Concert Performance Event
THE FATAL SCORE OR THE SPECTACLE OF THE SCAFFOLD
(The Way Up and the Way Down are One and the Same)

Installation: 12th May - 1st August 2010
Concert: 3pm, Sunday 16th May 2010
Location: Cockatoo Island, Sydney, NSW
Cost: FREE, with FREE ferries departing Circular Quay every half hour

Concert Programme:

Part 1. Pastoral / Recital / Picnic
Part 2. Arrest / Denouncement
Part 3. Transportation / Procession
Part 4. Trial / Sentence
Part 5. Recital / Execution
Part 6. Wake / Food Event

Works by:

Scarlatti, Beethoven, Liszt, Ives, Clark, Monteverdi, Bock, Cumes, Berlioz, AES+F, Andriessen, Nixon, Wallinger, Panhuysen, MacFarlane, Smyth, Brecht, Tyndall, Pertout, Hughes, Tenney, Grainger, Berio, Symons, Child

Performers:

Michael Kieran Harvey, piano
Richard Piper, actor
The Sydney Detachment of the Royal Australian Navy Military Band
Steven Stanke, Lieutenant, RAN, Music Director and Officer in Charge
Samantha Morley, soprano
Douglas Coghill, viola
Isabel Hede, violin

SLAVE PIANOS are Rohan Drape, Neil Kelly, Danius Kesminas & Michael Stevenson
SLAVE PIANOS is represented by DARREN KNIGHT GALLERY, Sydney
http://slavepianos.org


PART 1. PASTORAL / RECITAL / PICNIC

D. Scarlatti Sonata in D minor, K. 141 (Worgan) (c.1738) Piano
L. Beethoven arr. C. Czerny Ecossaise for Military Band, WoO 23 (1810) Piano & Trumpet
F. Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 S.514 (1859-62) Piano
C. Ives The Anti-Abolitionist Riots In The 1830's And 1840's (1949) Piano & Trumpet
A. Clark as The Living Rococo Untitled (1981) Piano & Trumpet

PART 2. ARREST / DENOUNCEMENT

L. Beethoven March for Military Band WoO 20 (1809) Military Band
C. Monteverdi Toccata (1608) / J. Bock Palms (2007) Military Band
Anon. Bugle and Side-drums Flourish #1
J.W.C. Cumes Their Chastity Was Not Too Rigid (1979) Actor
Anon. Bugle and Side-drums Flourish #2

PART 3. TRANSPORTATION / PROCESSION

C. Ives Processional (Es werde Licht) (1901) Military Band
H. Berlioz March to the Scaffold (1830) / M. Fusinato EP in E (1997) / AES+F The Feast of Trimalchio (2009) Military Band
L. Andriessen Workers Union (1975) / J. Nixon Red & Black (1981) Military Band, Actor

PART 4. TRIAL / SENTENCE

Anon. Dies Irae (c.1253) / M. Wallinger Prometheus (1999) Lyre, Military Band
C. Monteverdi Ahi, caso acerbo (1609) Soprano, Violin, Viola, Lyre
P. Panhuysen Partita for 16 Long Strings Equally Diminishing In Length (1999) Lyre
Anon. Bugle and Side-drums Flourish #3
I. MacFarlane (ed) 1842 The Public Executions at Melbourne (1984) Actor
Anon. Bugle and Side-drums Flourish #4
W. Smyth Again, My Lyre, Yet Once Again (1818) Violin, Lyre
C. Monteverdi Possente Spirto (1609)/ G. Brecht
Comb Music (Comb Event) (1959-62) Soprano, Violin, Viola, Lyre
P. Tyndall Slave Guitars (of the Art Cult) (1981) Viola, Lyre

PART 5. RECITAL / EXECUTION

Slave Pianos Second Movement of The Spectacle of the Scaffold (2010) Piano
A. Pertout No.1 & 10 of 24 Miniatures for Piano (2010) Piano
R. Hughes The Fatal Shore (1987) Actor
A. Pertout 19 & 24 of 24 Miniatures for Piano (2010) Piano
Slave Pianos Fifth Movement of The Spectacle of the Scaffold (2010) Violin, Viola, Piano, Mechanically-operated piano

PART 6. WAKE / FOOD EVENT

F. Liszt Bagatelle sans tonalite S.216a (1885) Mechanically-operated piano
J. Tenney WAKE for Charles Ives (1974) Four-side drums
Anon. arr. P. Grainger Horkstow Grange (1937) Military Band
Anon. arr. L. Berio Black is the colour from Folk Songs (1964) Soprano, Violin, Viola, Miniature Organ
M. Symons One Continuous Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia (1982)
F. J. Child The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1898) Actor, Singer, Violin, Viola, Miniature Organ

Slave Pianos, *New Cathaysia*, Programme Text

029-001 029-001 029-001 029-001

Slave Pianos, *New Cathaysia*, Programme Text

Victoria University of Wellington, Darren Knight Gallery & the Remembering the 20th Century Committee present:
SLAVE PIANOS NOTE C. NEW CATHAYSIA AND GONDWANALAND, A DIAGNOSIS
at Adam Art Gallery, Friday 18 June 2010, 8pm.

Introit


1 00:00 S1 L. Budd Studies for Existence 1998 / G. Orozco Ligne dAbandon 1993 [R,P]
2 01:30 S2 J. Beuys & N. J. Paik In Memoriam George Maciunas 1978 [R,Q]
S1 J. Dashper Gate Experience IV n.d [R,P]
3 04:30 S3 M. von Schlegell Slave Pianos: A Schema & Historo-Materialist Pro-gnostic 2001 [A]


Rending of the Veil


4 06:00 S1 L. Lye Trilogy (Flip and Two Twisters) 1977 [R,P,Q]
S3 G. Intra Slave Artists of the Piano Cult: An Introduction 2001 [A]
5 09:00 S2 C. Marclay One Thousand Cycles 1981 [R,Q]
S3 C. Kraus Aliens & Anorexia 2000 [A]
S4 D. Workman (Thela) Look Out! The Fucking Hot Jet 1995 [R]
6 13:30 S2 I. Tillers Queue Actions 1973 [Q]
S4 G. Brecht Comb Music (Comb Event) 1959-1962 [R,P,Q]


Collects


7 16:30 S1 A. Selenitsch Toora Lee: Four Pieces for Bellow Organ 1973 [Q]
S2 K. Schwitters Ursonate (Extract) 1922-32 [R,P]
S4 D. Malone & M. Popperwell Strike Church 1990 [R,P]
8 21:00 S1 S. Pianos Dissident Consonances 2007 [R,P]
S2 G. Maciunas Death Always Walked Around Me 1978 [Q]
S3 V. Landsbergis & G. Maciunas Private Correspondence 1962-1966 [A]
S4 J. Mekas Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas 1992 [F]


Consecration of the Elements


9 27:00 M. Creed Work No. 117 1995
10 29:00 S4 P. Corner Carrot Chew Performance 1964 / B. Apple Apple Chew Performance 2010 [Q,A]
11 30:30 S1 J. Tinguely Hegel 1988 [R,P]
S4 R. van Hout Bank Roll 1998 [R,P]


Anthem


12 33:30 S2 M. Duchamp La Mariee Mise a Nu Par Ses 1913 [Q] / M. Duchamp Musical Erratum 1913 [Q]
13 35:00 S3 Paul McCartney Ebony and Ivory 1982 [A] S4 E. Asse, V. Fishkin & D. Gutoff Music-Hall Whistling Performance 1995 [Q]
14 38:00 S1 J. Nixon, M. Fusinato, R. Nolan, S. Bram (Solver) 3 1997 [R,P]
S2 P.Tyndall 6 1981 [R,Q]
S3 P. Tyndall Private Correspondence (Brian Kennedy) 2000 [A]


Mystic Marriage and Consummation of the Elements


15 42:30 S2 V. Komar & A. Melamid Music Writing Passport 1976 [Q]
S3 J. Nixon & M. Fusinato Private Correspondence (Slave Pianos) 1999 [A]
16 45:30 S1 J. Jones Flux Music Box 1965 [R,P] S3 R. Gopas Pedagogical materials & anecdotes c.1970 [A]
S4 M. K. Ciurlionis Ar Vejai Pute VL.274 1908 [Q]
50:00 END


P=Piano & EMS VCS3, Q=Quartet(Violin,Clarinet,Clarinet,Bassoon), A=Actors, R=Archival Recording, F=Film

Tristan Carter (Violin), Justus Rozemond & Nicholas Walshe (Clarinets), Pieta Hextall (Bassoon), Jason Post (EMS VCS3), Debbie Fish & Mariya Kupriyenko (Actors)

SLAVE PIANOS thank Tina Barton, Bernie Gruschow, Andy Hummel, Dugal McKinnon, Laura Preston, Thomasin Sleigh and Teaching Services

The Gift - Redaction and Decontamination (Programme text)

032-004 032-004 032-004

The Gift - Redaction and Decontamination

SLAVE PIANOS and MUMA present RICHARD PIPER in

THE GIFT – REDACTION AND DECONTAMINATION

SATURDAY JULY 23 2011, 15:30

PART I – DEFENSE

  1. Julian Barnes The Porcupine (1992) [A,M] n. V. Komar & A. Melamid Music Writing Passport (1976) [P,C]

PART II - CONDEMNATION

  1. Joanna Murray-Smith The Gift 2011 [A] n. Martin Creed Work No. 117 (1995) [P,M] n. Tony Clark as The Living Rococo Untitled (1981) [P,M] n. John Bock Palms (2007) [P,M] n. Tony Oursler & Mike Kelley as The Poetics Pratfall (1977-83) [P,M] n. Jota Castro Lagrimas Negras (2009) [P,M] n. Laurie Anderson O Superman (1981) [P,M] n. Mikala Dwyer Floating Old Man (2000) [P,M] n. Kiki Smith Jewel (1997) [P,M] n. Len Lye Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1939) [P,M] n. Jonas Mekas Zefiro Torna: Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992) [P,M]

PART III - EXECUTION

  1. Nikola Tesla "The Art of Telautomatics" Electrical Experimenter (1919) [A,T] n. Th. Metzger Blood and Volts: Edison, Tesla, & the Electric Chair (1996) [A,T] n. Jean Tinguely Relief Meta-mechanique Sonore 1 (1955) [P,T,C,E] n. Peter Tyndall Slave Guitars of the Art Cult (1981) [P,T,C,E] n. Marco Fusinato EP in E (1997) [P,T,C,E]

PART IV - DEPOSITION

  1. John Welchman To Come Out Touching Nothing But A Piano (2011) [A] n. John Nixon as The Ballet Alexander Alexandrovich Blok Pt 1 (1981) [P]

PART V - TRANSMIGRATION

  1. Vitali Vitaliev Borders Up! Eastern Europe Through the Bottom of a Glass (1999) [A] n. Anonymous/W. Dunkerley In Christ there is no East or West (1908) [P,O] n. Anonymous Gerkit Gerkit Broliukai (Unknown) [O]

TRADITIONAL LITHUANIAN FOOD & VODKA

PART I - DEFENSE

I am Stoyo Petkanov. I have received the Collar of the Grand Order El Libertador from the Republic of Argentina. The Great Star of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Austria. The Great Collar of the Leopold Order from Belgium. The Great Collar of the Cruizeiro do Sul National Order from Brazil. The Grand Cross of the Order of Valour from the Burundi Republic. And also from the Burundi Republic the Grand Girdle of the National Order. The Grand Cross of the Order of Value of Cameroon. The memorial medal to mark the 30th Anniversary of the May Insurrection of the Czechoslovak People. The Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Centrafrican Republic. The Boyaca Order of Colombia. The Great Cross of Merit from the People's Republic of Congo. The Jose Marti Order from the Republic of Cuba. The Great Girdle of the Makarios Order from Cyprus. The Order of the Elephant from Denmark. The title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the Central University of Ecuador. The Order Great Collar of the Nile from the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Order of the Great Cross of the White Rose from Finland. The Great Cross of the Legion of Honour from France. Also the memorial medal Georges Pompidou. Also the title Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Nice. The Gold Medal of the Senate and the Memorial Coffer prepared on the Centennial Anniversary of the French Senate. The Great Cross of the Equatorial Star Order from Gabon. The Karl Marx Order from the German Democratic Republic. The Great Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. The Knight of the Order of the Star of Ghana. The Great Cross of the Order of the Saviour from Greece. And the Gold Medal of Athens City. The Great Cross of the National Order Truthfulness to the People from the Republic of Guinea. The Pahlavi Order with Collar from Iran. The Order The Great Girdle of Merit of the Republic from Italy. Also the Aldo Moro Gold Medal. Also the Simba Award for Peace. Also the Special Gold Medal, first class, Leonardo da Vinci, of the Rome International Relations Institute. Also the Gold Plaquette of the Piedmont Regional Junta. The Great Cross of the National Order of the Ivory Coast. The Al-Hussein Bin-Ali Collar from Jordan. The Order The Republic's Flag, first class, from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Moubarak the Great Collar from Kuwait. Also the Silver Plaquette of Kuwait University. The Order of Lebanese Merit. The Great Girdle of the Order of Pioneers from the Republic of Liberia. The Great Collar of the Mahammaddi Order of Morocco. The Great Girdle of Mauretanian National Merit. The Medal Champion of World Peace of the 20th Century from Mauritius. The Great Collar of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle. The Jubilee Gold Medal issued on the Fifth Anniversary of the Independence of Mozambique. The Order of St Olav from Norway. The Medal of Amsterdam City offered by the Mayor. The Nishan-i-Pakistan Order. Also the Pakistan Jubilee Medal Quaid-1-Azam. The Great Cross of the Order of the Sun from Peru. Also the title Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Engineering University of Peru. The Order Sikutana, first class, from The Philippines. The Great Cross of the Santiago Order from Portugal. The Equestrian Order of San Marino. The Great Cross of the National Order of the Lion of Senegal. The Great Girdle of the Omayds from the Syrian Arab Republic. The Knight of the Star of Somalia with Big Girdle. The Order Civil Merit with Collar from Spain. The Order Collar of Honour from Sudan. The Seraphim Roy al Order from Sweden. The Great Girdle of the Order of Independence from Turkey. The Diploma of Citizen of Honour and the Gold Key of Ankara City. The Knight of the Great Cross of the Bath Order from the United Kingdom. The Lenin Order from the USSR. Also, the Jubilee Medal Twenty Years Since the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Also the Jubilee Medal Instituted on the Centennial of Lenin. Also the Jubilee Medal Thirty Years Since the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The Order El Libertador from Venezuela. The Great Girdle of the National Order of Upper Volta. The Great Star Order of Yugoslavia. Also the Memorial Plaquette of Belgrade City. The Great Girdle of the National Order of the Leopard from Zaire. Also the Order Great Friend of Freedom, Great Commander, from Zambia. Also the Apimondia Jubilee Medal. The Gold Medal Frederic Joliot-Curie of the World Peace Council. The Jubilee Medal of the World Federation of United Towns. The Silver Jubilee Medal issued on the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations. The Norbert Wiener Gold Medal. The Gold Medal with Sash and Plaquette of the Institute for Problems of the New International Economic Order. The Distinction Man of the Year 1980 for Peace. JB

PART II - CONDEMNATION

I loved it. I loved it. Artists like you, Martin, they are... entrepreneurs of the soul. You know the value of things. Things bigger than lathes and saws and sanders and edge-banders. I can't believe how narrow I used to be. Seeing things from such a cynical perspective. I went along without much hope, to be honest. It wasn't that I didn't trust you, Martin. I trust you profoundly. It's more that I didn't trust myself. I kept thinking of what you said about suspending doubt. I went and I walked around your glass box and I began to sense something, something about myself. That I couldn't be sure of who I was: There. That was the sensation. Who am I? I asked myself. The next day, Sadie suggested we go the Hayward gallery. And the next day we went to the White Cube. The following weekend we were in New York and we went to the Guggenheim in Soho and a number of other galleries. There were things I liked and others I didn't. But what I realised was that each encounter had the possibility to... to surprise me about myself and the world. That sounds pretentious but the truth is, I began to get excited about what might happen. Life without enquiry... it's death. I went along and... I just opened myself to it. I banished doubt. I freed myself of doubt. And the moment you do that - it's like a jolt of electricity passes through you. I loved it, Martin. You've made me love art. I feel privileged to count you as a friend. No, but you're an exceptional person, Martin... I see things as I see 'em. And I'm not an idiot. You're a genius. "Bothered!" "Bothered!" It was our honour. It was our privilege. I never realised... All because of you two. If I hadn't met you... Two gifts you've given me. I realise now... Really great art - it's visual jazz, Martin. He's done a very interesting piece at the Lehmann Maupin: a door that opens and closes. It's not derivative in the least. I don't know how Claringbold could have said that. You really have to wonder about the critics. Contemporary art is created in a context where the intellectual and political conditions make commentary about it completely dysfunctional. I'd love to get my hands on a Creed. I do like the ironic citing of the everyday in art. It's understandable that the question comes up: is it a wank! But I think the studious exploitation of one's own daily life is completely justifiable. Art is personal. It has to be. And it always has been. The celebration of your own nerve endings, your own history, your own anger, your own fear. There was a wonderful work in the Saatchi collection where you walk out over a pool of black oil. It's such a raw, pure, beautiful, exciting moment. A sea of glistening black surrounding you. You can go on and on about the existential claims of the unified form and so on, but it's really just about standing there in the gleaming darkness, contemplating diving in. A kid on a pier at night. I've spent a year finding out about things. I realise that in my own way I was very snobbish. I was a snob. I thought I was too good for art. Anyway... Happy anniversary! JMS

PART III - EXECUTION

No subject to which I have ever devoted myself has called for such concentration of mind and strained to so dangerous a degree the finest fibres of my brain as the system of which the Magnifying Transmitter is the foundation. I put all the intensity and vigour of youth in the development of the rotating field discoveries, but those early labours were of a different character. Although strenuous in the extreme, they did not involve that keen and exhausting discernment which had to be exercised in attacking the many puzzling problems of the art of Telautomatics. Despite my rare physical endurance at that period the abused nerves finally rebelled and I suffered a complete collapse, just as the consummation of the long and difficult task was almost in sight. Without doubt I would have paid a greater penalty later, and very likely my career would have been prematurely terminated, had not providence equipped me with a safety device, which has seemed to improve with advancing years and unfailingly comes into play when my forces are at an end. So long as it operates I am safe from danger, due to overwork, which threatens other inventors and, incidentally, I need no vacations which are indispensable to most people. To venture a theory out of my sphere, the body probably accumulates little by little a definite quantity of some toxic agent and I sink into a nearly lethargic state which lasts half an hour to the minute. Upon awakening I have the sensation as though the events immediately preceding had occurred very long ago, and if I attempt to continue the interrupted train of thought I feel a veritable mental nausea. NT

PART IV - DEPOSITION

Recalling musical compositions from his early teens, he referred to their dark ethos as 'the blackest and most radical things I know in raven-black music'. He wrote of the 'torturing' of the piano by the despondent possession of youth — 'to the point of drawing from it cries of despair' — hands 'heaving up' 'the mire of the most dismal gray-brown harmonies'. To what might this give rise? Well, surely, inevitably, the sense of 'how one is recognized, as a pessimist'. More surprisingly, Nietzsche also thought about the redistribution of music in small, corporeal increments; about the specific gravity and sheer mass of the piano ('Germans have never known how to sing and lug their pianos along with them everywhere'); about the converting power of re-scoring for piano ('from the moment there was a piano score of Tristan ... I was a Wagnerian'); about the prophylactic capacity of the piano to ward off sexual depredations (of a visit to a brothel in Bonn during his college years he famously remarked that he 'came out touching nothing but a piano'); and even about the forms of servitude to which, rightly or wrongly, music might be given: 'Modern music is just the progressive withering away of the melodic sense. Melody, as the ultimate and most sublime art of art, obeys logical principles that our anarchists would like to decry as slavery'. Writing somewhat in the gap between the era of the piano and the new age of its mechanical surrogate, the pianola, Nietzsche offers us an almost alarmingly perspicacious critical panorama of the defaults, seductions and dangers of the instrument and of its place in the history of both music and modernity. Almost everything that attaches to or will befall the piano as well as the possible fate of its removal from the sphere of touch is hinted at here — along with a few untimely meditations that venture much further afield such as those referring to sexuality, darkness, pessimism and slavery itself. One of the lessons I want to draw out here concerns the reconfiguration of 'originality' that underwrites the philosopher's relationship to a musical 'master,' which he recalibrates as a form of incorporation. JCW

PART V - TRANSMIGRATION

Wine is the sun, the earth and the grape. Vodka is a volatile sperm of a nation. It is a shock, an aggression, an epileptic attack, a blow below the belt. Drinking in Russia often ends up in scuffles and ugly fights - something that rarely happens in wine countries like Italy or France. Vodka culture is the culture of spasm and hysteria. It is happiness through nausea and disgust. No one in his right mind can claim that vodka is tasty. This is why it is gulped, not sipped. It is only the un-cultured West Europeans who sip vodka, which shows their lack of understanding of vodka culture. Wine, on the other hand, is gradualness, enjoyment, delight. It is happiness through happiness. It does not lead to oblivion, but provides communication along horizontal, rather than vertical, lines. Good wine is like blotting paper: it absorbs you into its own life, it flows smoothly and unhurriedly from one soul into another like sand in a sand-glass. It has its own history and its own memory - the memory of the soil, the memory of the vine, the memory of the grape. It has its own distinctive culture, as ancient as that of poetry or dance. VV


[A=ACTOR, P=PIANO, T=TESLA COIL, C=CONSOLE, M=MAP PLOTTER, O=ORGAN, E=ELECTRONICS]

SLAVE PIANOS thanks Tina Atic, Roul Bahar, Antanas Kesminas, Audrone Kesminas, Gintas Kesminas, Stepas Levickis, Andrius Lipsys, Joanna Murray-Smith and Kristina Pozelaite

The Lepidopters: Part 3

THE LEPIDOPTERS: PART THREE

Prelude

Slave Pianos ASPHALT ON ERODED CLIFF
Sedulur Gamelan, 32-part choir, instruments, electronics. Text by P.K. Dick.


Part I

Slave Pianos ANOTHER MIND IS SIGNALLING YOU
32-part choir & electronics. Text by P.K. Dick.

Robert Schumann GOD'S IS THE ORIENT, GOD'S THE OCCIDENT (1848)
Double choir & keyboards. Poem by Goethe.

Slave Pianos UNTITLED (MOTHS)
Solo piano, flute, clarinet, percussion, choir & vocal quartet.
Text by Mark von Schlegell, and from Isaiah 50/51 and Psalm 106.

Slave Pianos A SENTIENT VOLITIONAL FIELD
Sedulur Gamelan & instruments

Gianandrea Pauletta AGNUS DEI (2012)
4-part choir a cappella. Text from Mass liturgy.


Interval

Slave Pianos MIRAGE No.2
Sedulur Gamelan, instruments & Punkasila


Part II

Slave Pianos LEANING STRATA Sedulur Gamelan, 32-part choir, electronics. Text by P.K. Dick.

Heinrich Schütz MANY WILL COME FROM THE EAST AND WEST (1648)
5-part choir & organ. Text from Matthew 8.

Punkasila WE ARE THE LEPIDOPTERS & WITH YOU WE SHALL SOW OUR QUEEN
Text by Mark von Schlegell.

Michael Kieran Harvey DEATHS-HEAD MANDALA & N-CHROMIUM
Synthesiser, electric guitar, electronics
Piano, automated piano, clarinet, electric guitar, organ


Interval

Slave Pianos MANGROVE RING
Sedulur Gamelan & instruments


Part III

Punkasila LARVAE OF THE ATOM BOMB & UNIK MOTEL: EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY NORMAL
Text by Mark von Schlegell.

Slave Pianos WE ARE EACH PARTS (SPACE ORGAN FOUR)
organ, electric guitar, electronics

Gianluca Geremia AGNUS DEI (2014)
5-part choir. Text from Mass liturgy.


Postlude

Slave Pianos LAKE CRESCENTS
Sedulur Gamelan, instruments & choir. Text by Mark von Schlegell.

Slave Pianos, *Moscow Stations / Last Stop East*, Programme Text

Ir atskrido uodelis

Ir atskrido uodelis
Ir' nutupė an' šakos
A a a pa pa
Ir' nutupė an' šakos

Ir' paputė viejelis
Ir' nupuolė uodelis
A a a pa pa
Ir' nupuolė uodelis

Ir' nupuolė uodelis
Išsimušė tris' dan'tsys
A a a pa pa
Išsimušė tris' dant'sys

Ir atskrido musiukė
Tuo uodelio mergutė
A a a pa pa
Tuo uodelio sesiukė

Ar' tau reikia dak'taro
Ar' kunigo klebono
A a a pa pa
Ar' kunigo klebono

Nei mon'reikia dak'taro
Nei kunigo klebono
A a a pa pa
Nei kunigo klebono

Cik' mon' reikia arielkos
Kad ir' pusės bu-utel'kos
A a a pa pa
Kad ir' pusės bu-utel'kos


The mosquito flew along

A mosquito flew in and fell off the branch
He broke his three front teeth
His lover, a fly, came over and said:
"Do you need a doctor? Or a priest?"
The mosquito replied; "I don't need a doctor,
Or a priest.
I just need another beer"
The fly refused to give her lover the beer
The mosquito died.

Slave Pianos, *Moscow Stations / Last Stop East*, Programme Text

036-041 036-041 036-041 036-041

Slave Pianos, *Recitals of Artist's Music and Sound Works*, Programme Essay

MIKE STEVENSON

By Chris McAuliffe

Under the circumstances, the natural question is, "Who is Mike Stevenson?" Given Stevenson's penchant for role-playing (and, lately, roll playing), it would be better to ask, "What kind of artist is he?" He has always been an observer, an outsider looking over the shoulder of other artists. Early paintings documented a kind of bar room origami peculiar to New Zealand, a folk craft folding cigarette packets into toy animals. A major body of paintings, drawings and installations melded the monomania of earthworks and minimalism art with the paranoia of the conspiracy theorist. Acting the part of a bitter and twisted provincial, Stevenson unearthed a plot to ensure his own marginality in a corruptly manipulated art system. Now, these crazed fictions (or are they...?) have given way to empirical research. Stevenson has become an anthropologist of the avant-garde, charting the rituals and mythologies of its shamen.

Stevenson's research into the musical performances of contemporary artists generates a feedback loop. His pianola plays back the gestures of a provincial avant-garde, rendering mechanical their putatively intuitive and improvisatory performances. Repeating a vanguardism that was always already a repetition, Stevenson stages a perverse cover-version of modernist reflexivity. This is not a reflexivity that secures art but rather one that reveals something of art's insecurities; its envy of mass culture, its efforts to compensate for its own elitism, its fear that vanguardism may wither if not ritually re-enacted. The CD and the 45 rpm single become talismanic proofs of the continued possibility of a global underground or a democratised avant-garde.

Stevenson's mimicry could be seen as a post-colonial tactic: the periphery parodically echoing the centre, developing a resistant consciousness through too-slavish respect, an exaggerated emulation that eventually triggers an implosion. That might have been true of his earlier parodies of the international avant-garde; de Maria's Lightning Field depicted as a NASA facility, Don Judd's minimalist modules as the backdrop for Symbionese Liberation Army heist. But Stevenson's work now apes the desire of provincial artists to join that international avant-garde, whether through Cagean meanderings or post-punk amateurism. He renders mechanical and digital, the provincial's desire for a genetic affiliation with the international. In Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult), a collaboration with Danius Kesminas, avant-garde recordings are transcribed into sheet music by Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape of La Trobe University. These are then manufactured as player piano rolls, eventually becoming a mediated, mechanical echo of visceral performances. Slave Pianos generates multiple repetitions of something always already a repetition, something seeking to register its vanguardist difference even as it claims identity with an avant-garde tradition. It is art's constant ability to mark the same as different that fascinates Stevenson. His own repetition traces the rituals of an art world in denial.


Chris McAuliffe is Director of the Ian Potter Museum, University of Melbourne

First published in Toi Toi Toi: Three generations of artists from New Zealand, Kassel: Museum Fridericianum, 1999, pp. 168-170. Copyright the Museum Fridericianum and the author.

David Cross _Uncovering a Taxonomy of Australian Fluxus_

Uncovering a Taxonomy of Australian Fluxus

Australia has a long history of Fluxus activity. Almost as soon as the madcap neo-Dada antics of Dick Higgins, Joseph Beuys and co. came to the fore in America and Europe in the early 1960's, there was an Australian Fluxus. This was not, however, just another art fad that gripped this country at the time. It was not a movement lifted from the pages of Art International or Artforum as was the cargo cult convention in the 60's. Unlike the assorted hybrid movements that had no problem mixing Minimalism with a bit of organicism and covering it all in playground covered paint, Australian Fluxus or

AusFlux, as it was known, was the genuine article. AusFlux was established on May 14, 1962 as a post office box in suburban Carnegie in Melbourne and existed up until 1997. In true Dada spirit, AusFlux began as the result of a chance encounter. George Maciunas, the Lithuanian raconteur and brains behind New York Fluxus, met Ian and Beverley Stock while they were admiring Monet's 'Waterlilies' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Maciunas was there to stage a Fluxus event and thought Ian's outfit of knee high socks and sandals was part of his own group's performance. The three got chatting and Ian mentioned he was an amateur artist from Melbourne. Macianus, always on the lookout for international networking, asked them if they had heard of Fluxus and whether they might be interested in starting up an Australian chapter. As it happened they had not heard about the movement but were keen to find out about it. Macianus invited them to his house the next day and introduced them to Alison Knowles and Yoko Ono, who was working on her first performance piece Cut. Ian and Bev were captivated by the charisma of Macianus and while a little uncertain about the nonsensical nature of Fluxus, agreed to develop a chapter from their home in Carnegie.

Ian was the coordinator of events while Margaret agreed to be the archivist and editor of the quarterly pamphlet known as Quirky and then later on after 1974, Ausquirk. The group was prolific although somewhat isolated from the Melbourne art community. John Reed, director of the newly established Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne, thought them kooks and without the moral rigour of his beloved Angry Penguins. His lack of support coupled with their marginal status in the local scene meant that their work was not picked up at all by either the mainstream art press or the avant garde publishing scene. Staged happenings like Quarter Acre Block performed in suburban Moorabin and Event for Tom Roberts, that took place in the Wombat state forest, have no visual or critical record whatsoever. The only documentation was in the form of transcripts of each event taken from recordings on reel to reel tape that are now lost.

Little has been known about these pieces until recently. While there was talk of staged dressing and undressing in the manner of San Francisco dancer Ann Halprin and even Jackson Pollock inspired free gestural forest improvisation, most of the talk has been anecdotal and based on hearsay. Rumour about the existence of an avant garde fluxus group has existed for years but there has been no documented evidence to back up such claims. However, recent scholarship has uncovered the nature of the group, their activities and most interestingly their membership list. Masters student at the University of Sydney, Allison Carruthers, made a remarkable discovery while viewing the Fluxus archive in New York in April 1999 as part of her thesis on little known Czech Fluxus artist Vac Koval. While she was flicking through a number of unmarked boxes she came across a large container with a postmark from Australia. Although sealed she felt compelled to open it finding inside a letter and eight cardboard storage boxes. The letter, typed on an old typewriter, was from Bev Stock. It stated that AusFlux had ceased operations after 35 years due to her poor health. Rather than donate the archive to the National Gallery of Victoria she felt it best that it be shipped, in its entirety, to the international Fluxus archive where it would be appreciated and understood.

Most controversially she found a membership list of 14 names including three she recognised. One was a well known art critic now deceased, the other a prominent postminimal artist now in the stable of Roslyn Oxley9. And the third was the director of a state gallery. Yet just before she was about to publish this information in her thesis, an injunction was placed on releasing of the names. She has claimed that someone on the academic staff tipped off the now successful director who felt any association with AusFlux would be highly detrimental to his now 'establishment' reputation. This is indeed a pity as the information this director could no doubt supply would help establish and bring to light a secret history of avantgardism in this country. The case scheduled to be heard in the New South Wales County Court in August 2000 is being contested by Carruthers yet she has received little support and is not hopeful of succeeding.

While there have been a range of noted practitioners including John Nixon, Gunter Christmann and Phil Edwards to name three who have made distinctly Australian Fluxus art, they have done so intermittently and in tandem with other diverse practices. AusFlux on the other hand was a sustained movement solely dedicated to Fluxus and its unique permutations in this country. Its story long buried in prejudice and indifference is now coming out. Carruthers has spoken to a number of academics and presented excerpts on AusFlux at last years Art Association conference in Wellington. Her thesis should tell the full story and rewrite contemporary art history in this country. AusFlux deserves nothing less.

David Cross, 2000

Note: Owing to legal action pending certain names have been withheld in the publishing of this article.

John McDonald _The Virtuoso of Failure_, 2001

The Virtuoso of Failure

From the moment he burst onto the Melbourne art scene with his Technical Manifesto of Town Planning (1982), Tony Clark has been a virtuoso of failure. He has failed and failed again, failed and failed better, and has orchestrated his efforts with consummate professionalism. The paradox of Tony Clark is that he has harnessed an obvious lack of artistic talent to a 'couldn't-care-less' attitude towards technique and finish, and placed the results within a frame garnished with the intellectual equivalent of costume jewellery -- to capture the hearts of artists, critics, dealers and curators.

This is a very late-20th century phenomenon, and, it is tempting to say -- a very Melbourne phenomenon. Although Clark has made his mark in other Australian cities, and gained a toehold in Germany after being included in Documenta IX in 1993, he owes his rapid rise to a special set of circumstances. In the early 1980s, Australian art was emerging from a long, boring winter of conceptualism, minimalism, earth works, feminist polemics, trade union banners, and embarrassing performance pieces. Sensing that it was time for a change, the young critic and social climber, Paul Taylor, had launched the magazine Art & Text, with the aim of promoting a new wave of emerging Australian artists. The new work was an unlikely alliance of 'TransAvantGarde'-style paintings, and late-blooming Pop art. The intellectual pedigree came largely from Roland Barthes, and from Dick Hebdidge's book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style.

Within a few years, the Art & Text putsch had conquered the citadels of contemporary Australian art. The artists who had been promoted by the magazine -- including Jenny Watson, Mike Parr, Imants Tillers, Dale Frank, Peter Tyndall, Maria Kozic, John Nixon, Howard Arkley and a host of others -- had become obligatory acquisitions for public art museums, and were first choice for overseas travelling exhibitions. The Marxist professors who had championed trade union banners and feminist art, were seduced by the conspicuous coolness of the new art, and jumped aboard the bandwagon.

In retrospect, the whole episode seems like a triumph of hype over substance, just as the financial boom of the 1980s was characterized by spectacular displays of wealth bouyed up by imaginary money. The best of the 'new wave' artists have maintained a presence in the Australian art scene, but there is no longer any suggestion of a small, closely-knit vanguard dominating every public exhibition.

In 1982, when Tony Clark made his artistic debut, Paul Taylor had put together an exhibition called Popism for the National Gallery of Victoria, as a showcase for his favourite artists. Iconoclasm was the order of the day, and Clark's Technical Manifesto of Town Planning was a breath-taking new addition to the field. The work consisted of thirteen small canvas boards and one photograph arranged on a shelf. Each canvas board featured a piece of classically-inspired architecture, painted in the roughest, most awkward fashion. Clark's method has been described as "Expressionist", although it could just as easily have been called 'inept'. Moreover, it was self-consciously and comfortably inept, as though it would have been beneath the artist's dignity to expend any greater effort.

By this stage, Clark had already collaborated with the artist, John Nixon, on a series of equally raw musical pieces that appeared in 1981, and have recently been resuscitated by SLAVE PIANOS. His next venture was a set of Sacro-Idyllic landscapes of 1982-84, which led quickly to Clark's Myriorama, a seemingly endless series of small temples painted on canvas boards, according to a formula devised by Englishman, John Clark, in 1824. Tony Clark started on this project in 1985, and by 1997 it was still crawling along. Quite possibly it remains a work in progress. Other projects have included the Chinoiserie landscapes of 1985-89, which began with a plasticene model of a Chinese temple, depicted on a series of small canvas boards against a decorative background. The Kufic landscapes of 1991 introduced Islamic characters into the mix, while the Jasperware paintings of 1993 borrowed from Josiah Wedgwood's decorative schema of a white emblem, in bas-relief, against a flat, monochrome background. Another, much-touted work of 1994, called Important Contemporary Sculpture, translated a 'formless' rope sculpture by Eva Hesse into a silhouette wall piece, painted in gold.

Common to these diverse projects was the capacity to activate a series of art historical paradigms to produce a vertiginous impression of erudition and profundity. To the uninitiated viewer the works may appear amateurish, incompetent and repetitive, but to those alert to the play of references, Clark's work took on the status of a philosophical investigation. It held a special appeal to those artists, writers and curators who felt able to decode the work's iconographical associations, and explain how Clark 'subverted' various canons of taste and style. In brief, Clark allowed his admirers to enjoy the satisfying feeling of being 'insiders', while the rest of the world may have remained blind and deaf to his wisdom.

This process is documented in the catalogue of a survey exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, Heide Park, Melbourne, in May 1998. In his preface to Tony Clark: Public and Private Paintings 1982-98, the museum director, Warwick Reeder, discerns both "technical virtuosity" and an "anti-painting posture" in Clark's work. This sort of paradox is repeated on almost every page of the catalogue. His painting is described as "punk classicism"; it inspires both "desire and revulsion"; it is positioned somewhere between "homage and satire" or "belief and disbelief". In a "colloquium" a group of Clark's artist friends discuss his work, admiring the way Tony "gets it wrong without even trying." They compare him to Vermeer, "without the fourteen children". They find certain pictures to be simultaneously "lumpy and horrible" and "beautiful". They note that a mural Clark painted for St.Kilda public library in Melbourne is "really hated" by staff -- which leads to the thought that "if it is disliked then maybe that's the sign that you're onto something."

So too with a 1997 show of paintings on single stretcher bars, to which "people responded really badly". One participant confesses his fear that "there is some quality like he hasn't done any work, that he doesn't give a shit about you, that he is trying to send you up…" Another speaker decides this is "really good," since it provides "a tension". For the next speaker this means Clark is to be praised because "he doesn't give you any easy solutions."

This extraordinary exchange of opinions, which is without parallel in Australian art publishing, has provided Slave Pianos with much of their libretto for The Broccoli Maestro. Further contributions are drawn from Clark's own writings, and those of his female alter-ego, Judith Pascal.

By now it should be clear that Tony Clark's reputation has soared on the wings of paradox and contradiction. He is not being praised for his skill and hard work, but for his "slapstick" and careless approach, which denotes a dandy's contempt for the conventional social and artistic values. The fact that he has painted with a stick of broccoli, or allowed a picture to be covered with stray hairs from his lounge room carpet, is a sign that he is working on a higher plane from those artists who strive to achieve a pristine and unified surface. His most persistent preoccupation is Classicism or Neo-Classicism, which he debunks by painting classically perfect forms in the most incompetent manner. The references that he drops -- to Mantegna, Wedgwood, Aldo Rossi, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux or St.Thomas Aquinas -- to name only a few -- are bewildering to most of his audience, but serve as shared badges of belonging for those included in the loop. In the world of Tony Clark, failure is success, trivialization is homage, incompetence is the highest form of skill, and mere names are passports to the realms of philosophy. Even pretentiousness is ruled out, because to be deliberately pretentious is to take shelter under the mantle of irony.

One realizes the mystical power of this position when reading one of the essayists in the Heide Park catalogue, who tells us that Clark's work is "a depiction of the (almost) literal disintegration of western culture itself... a declaration of the impossibility of any such markers of cultural centrality or originality."

To a mutually-supportive avant-garde sheltered at the ends of the earth, it must be comforting to think that cultural centrality and originality are all washed up. Neither is it a small matter that one artist from St.Kilda has single-handedly debunked the entire Classical tradition, using a piece of broccoli as a brush and his lounge room floor as an easel. Truly, this is the stuff from which grand opera is made.

John McDonald
Canberra, October 2001

Slave Pianos _The Broccoli Maestro_, 2001

The Broccoli Maestro

THE BROCCOLI MAESTRO draws together materials from four sources: 1) the writings, musical compositions, paintings and ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA of Tony Clark; 2) the writings of Clark's literary pseudonym Judith Pascal; 3) musical compositions and commentaries on Clark's work by his colleagues Stephen Bram, Constanze Zikos, Rose Nolan, Geoff Lowe, Angela Brennan and Gary Wilson; and 4) historical musical correspondences with Clark's seminal painting ensemble The Technical Manifesto of Town Planning, 1982. The unifying figure of Tony Clark provides a mechanism to bring together musical, artistic and theoretical discourses spanning eight centuries and three continents by relocating Melbourne artists in 13th century Paris.

TONY CLARK belongs to a generation of artists whose practices have been informed by both conceptual art and popular culture. In Clark's case, this position is all the more revealing for the artist's strong interest in the history of classical art and architecture, and the attendant areas of interior design, decoration and music. Tony Clark's work demonstrates a technical virtuosity, at the same time that it embraces a slapstick and off-handed anti-painting posture, in its investigation of the threshold between the properties of painting, sculpture and installation. Clark's work issues from a longstanding interest in the history of taste, architectural embellishment and the disputes between classicism and popular culture. These issues are articulated by a deliberate amateurism whereby the concept of failure is built into the work, not only for the organic and uncanny possibilities it affords, but also to offset the lofty and transcendental values characteristic of Classicism. Tony Clark's project is relentlessly contemporary, domestic and local - a travesty of the classics. Clark's work assumes an anti-art position reminiscent of the historical avant-garde, and low-tech serial productions characteristic of pop. These forms are incorporated for their historical register in order to underwrite the artist's historical inquisition from a contemporary position.

Clark was a founding participator in the activities of ANTI-MUSIC, a collective of visual artists initiated by John Nixon in 1979. ANTI-MUSIC shared an interest in politically and economically progressive means of sound production, which they called "industrial folk music." Their practice is informed by the legacy of Futurist, Dada, and film music and coupled with a DIY attitude first associated with Punk. With Nixon, Clark explored the musical corollary of his interest in the Renaissance, which he described as ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA. The Synopsis (see facing page) of Clark's own anti-opera Aquinas forms the conceptual framework for THE BROCCOLI MAESTRO.

The present libretto folds Clark's scheme for Aquinas onto a series of anecdotes and critical responses to the painter's work by fellow artists. It uses the form of Clark's lyric drama as a template for inserting the painter himself (a complex and highly theatrical persona constructed as a deliberate part of his art practice) into the central Aquinas role with his feminine, scholarly alter ego, Judith Pascal as Philosophy. The conflation of textual sources - Clark's ANTI-MUSIC/OPERA and the Colloquium - which are seemingly contradictory in both a historical and geographical sense - is in fact consistent with Clark's desire to give expression to a "St Kilda version of classicism".

The interleaving of related but disparate textual materials has a direct parallel with the musical structure. The fourteen scenes of the opera correspond directly with the fourteen canvas boards of the Technical Manifesto. Two streams of musical materials, one derived from Clark's involvement in the original ANTI-MUSIC activities (1979-1981) and the other from his wide interest in classical formal structures, are folded together and presented simultaneously.

SLAVE PIANOS, _Neglect Is No Laughing Matter_

Neglect Is No Laughing Matter

In 1981, Peter Tyndall, commenting on his own work, described the manner in which meaning is constructed, how truth is relative and history contingent:

A painting does not float, independent, half-way up a random wall. 'It' is physically dependent on the strings which support it against the gravitational force which would bring 'it' down …nor can 'the (one's) perceiving' be considered outside the influence or colouring of either the physical light (physical lights) or the metaphoric lights (cultural knowledge …)

Nineteen years later, in a letter to the director of the National Gallery of Australia, Tyndall objected:

I do not understand why for two whole decades the NGA has so ignored my work. (Even your recent, publicised, purchase of SLAVE PIANOS material has no SLAVE GUITARS material to properly contextualise it.)

FOREIGN KNOWLEDGE (I have made a heap of all that I could find) offers something of a correction to this complaint. This documentary monodrama is based on the aforementioned letter and an autobiographical lecture by Tyndall published in Tension magazine in 1989.

SLAVE PIANOS' work has been constantly developing since 1998.

The most recent project of ours in the collection of the NGA was created in 2000.

SLAVE PIANOS are indebted to Peter Tyndall; he is 'the go-between'. Firstly, the etymology of our moniker derives from his 1978 work, SLAVE GUITARS of the Art Cult. Indeed, we have adopted a form of his 'Puppet Culture Framing System' ideogram as our logo. Tyndall metamorphosed his universal framing device and his puppeteer's marionette hand controls with strings into a guitar. We continued this evolutionary process with the same continued dependence on strings, a framing device and gravitational force to accommodate a piano.

Secondly, we have embraced Tyndall's project - to render visible the viewer's relation to art - and applied it to the phenomenon of visual artists' music, improvisations and noises. Our transcriptions of these performances into musical notation objectify the abstract space of sound art.

FOREIGN KNOWLEDGE frames the relationship between the artist and the circulation of his art. The monodrama examines his dependence upon institutional support to: forward his career, give voice to his fundamentally critical pieces, and buttress his paintings against the said gravitational force. The libretto reveals Tyndall's aspiration toward self-historicisation and the subsequent indignation regarding his perceived neglect. These are the unrequited conditions of a casualty of history, outside the influence or colouring of cultural knowledge, both physical and metaphysical.

Humour is pervasive in Tyndall's work. In 1974 he coined the maxim, 'If you're really serious you should be laughing'. According to Ashley Crawford, 'this has had the effect of severely disorientating critics… (and collectors, museum acquisitors etc) …and other viewers who take their Art too seriously.' Sadly, neglect is no laughing matter. HA HA.

SLAVE PIANOS
Ballarat – Berlin, September 2002.

  1. Peter Tyndall 'SLAVE GUITARS (formerly SLAVE GUITARS of the Art Cult)', Art + Text no.4, Summer 1981, pp.44-45.
  2. Peter Tyndall Letter to Brian Kennedy, Director, National Gallery of Australia, 3 May 2000.
  3. Peter Tyndall 'FOREIGN KNOWLEDGE (I have made a heap of all that I could find)', Tension 21 June 1990, pp.40-51.
  4. Ashley Crawford, 'detail: a person looks at peter tyndall', Tension 18 1989, pp.42-45.

John McCaughey _SLAVE PIANOS & ASTRA / MACIUNAS & LANDSBERGIS_

SLAVE PIANOS & ASTRA / MACIUNAS & LANDSBERGIS

The Lithuanian origins of Astra, through its founding in 1951 as a women's orchestra by the immigrant conductor Asta Flack, are just one of many coincident factors of this collaboration with Slave Pianos -- a joint project that has evolved over some years, and is as much 'about' the multi-form natures of our two groups as it is a representation of the two extraordinary Lithuanian figures of Maciunas and Landsbergis or an attempt at realizing the metaphorical power of their interactions in their diversely dissident lives.

Slave Pianos' work since 1998 itself deals with overlappings, coincidings and transferrals. Made up of four artists from visual and acoustic spheres, the group has produced multiple explorations and re-workings of the last century's boundary-crossings between art and performance, a labyrinthine heritage reaching back to early expressionist and futurist manifestations and taken up into the post-Cage Fluxus movement of which George Maciunas was the leading proponent. Slave Pianos performances and installations have gained a wide profile, extending from the National Gallery of Australia to Los Angeles, New York and several European centres. In 2001 the Frankfurt publisher Revolver produced a book of critical essays about their work (Pianology and Other Works) as part of a larger package (Slave Pianos: A Diagnosis) containing an audio 'triumvirate' on vinyl, CD and cassette. In 2004 at the National Drama Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania they premiered their oratorio-theatre Two Lives in Flux and Vice Versa -- the forerunner of this program's new work -- with many Lithuanian participants including ex-President Landsbergis.

Dissident Consonancesis an assemblage of sounds and sights, texts and actions, experienced across five distinct 'genres' of presentation in different spaces of the building. Its materials radiate from the specific -- the tale and testimonies of its two central figures; to the general -- artifacts of its background in consonance with both Slave Pianos' and Astra's performance traditions; and to the unique also -- the moment when Alena Karazijiene, the sister of Vytautas Landsbergis and a longtime resident of Melbourne, performs her brother's Spatial Poem No.5.

Extending from Slave Pianos' trademark mechanized piano in the foyer, the music of the program surrounds the Astra Choir with its collection of early and modern keyboard instruments, previously at the former Music Department of La Trobe University, and here used in different configurations in the two new choral works by Slave Pianos composers Rohan Drape and Neil Kelly. (The keyboard arc does not stop there, but returns in Part 5 into the Slave Pianos domain with Danius Kesminas's vodka organ.) Influences in common form further consonances between Astra and Slave Pianos, as represented in Keith Humble's and George Brecht's music-theatrical events that originated in the same Zeitgeist as George Maciunas.

The early-Baroque compositions of Monteverdi and Purcell were cherished by Maciunas as the last music of any worth. They are preceded by two mediaeval pieces, heard by the audience en passant - the famous 14th-century Lament of Tristan (organ portative) and the Organ Estampiefrom the Robertsbridge Codex (played on regal), the earliest published keyboard work to survive. A further composer of Monteverdi's time, Jean deMacque, inspired the title of the whole work with his Extravagant Consonances, extraordinary and harmonically experimental keyboard pieces that reflect his membership in the household of Gesualdo in Naples. Claudio Monteverdi in his music from the Fourth Book of Madrigalsonwards develops new rhythms and harmonies that express a dissenting spirit between the singer and the surrounding world. His duo Zefiro torna for two tenors over a dancing, unchanging bass phrase depicts the west wind blowing across and transforming a natural and human landscape; it formed the title and part of the soundtrack for the film about Maciunas, and is here performed live in an adapted version for mixed choir. Henry Purcell's music followed closely in Monteverdi's heritage, giving each segment of text its own expressive force, frequently heard in overlaid patterns. "In the midst of life we are in death" provides a peerless display of dissonances and chromatic expression that, as with Maciunas, were to become consonant with the composer's own external circumstances. Written as part of the funeral music for Queen Mary in January 1695, it was performed again at Purcell's own funeral in December that year, following his death at the age of 36.

JMcC.

Slave Pianos _The Execution Protocol_

THE EXECUTION PROTOCOL

Created in April 1966 for an exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds are floating rectangles of metallised plastic film filled with a mixture of helium and oxygen. The Silver Clouds, designed with the assistance of engineer Billy Klüver, are an embodiment of Warhol's 'farewell to painting', a physical manifestation of his desire for paintings to leave the walls and to float away.

"Oh! Oh! Oh, this is fantastic, Billy!... It's going to fly away! It's like a movie! Fantastic! This is one of the most exciting things that's ever happened to me! It is so beautiful. Oh, Billy, it's infinite, because it goes in with the sky. Oh, it is fantastic! Oh! ... Billy, do you know what our movies are called? Up movies, and up art." – Andy Warhol

The installation of Warhol's Silver Clouds at the Great Hall provides the context for a significant new work by Slave Pianos, Electric Chair (2007). These two works, taken together, provide the conceptual foundation for a minutely examined & carefully choreographed evening of extravagant entertainment: The Execution Protocol.

"Is not a man an artist who can painlessly and without brutality dispatch another man?" – Charles Duff

Beginning in late 1963, and continuing though until 1967, Warhol made a series of Electric Chair prints and paintings, part of his extensive Death and Disaster sequence. These works are variations on a photograph of the execution chamber at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY. The Slave Pianos Electric Chair is, in turn, a large scale sculptural variation on Warhol's work. It accommodates a suspended concert grand piano, held in an elevated position by leather restraints, and bound at its most delicate extremity by the QRS SLAVE PIANO mechanism. Throughout the evening this device will deftly execute the newly extruded Pianology repertoire, painstaking transcriptions of musical works by visual artists. The imminent demise of each work will be announced by an electrically lit sign, incorporated into the design of the chair, and modelled on the 'SILENCE' signal located above the entrance to the Sing Sing execution chamber.

"Being born is like being kidnapped, and then sold into slavery" – Andy Warhol

This will not be the first occasion where Warhol's Silver Clouds have been subsumed into a larger endeavour. In 1968 they were incorporated by choreographer Merce Cunningham into his dance work RainForest, a collaboration with composer and electronic music pioneer David Tudor, and painter and costume-designer Jasper Johns.

"I immediately thought they would be marvellous on stage because they moved, and they were light, and they took light. So I asked Andy and he said, 'Oh sure'." – Merce Cunningham

RainForest was in turn subsumed into Persepolis Event, which was performed at the ancient Persian city of Persepolis in 1972 as part of the extraordinary series of international arts festivals held annually, and on an exceedingly lavish scale, from1967 until 1977, in honour of the royal court of the Shahanshah, and his artistically inclined wife, Shahbanou Farah.

"One of the odder aspects of the late Shah's regime was its wish to buy modern Western art, so as to seem 'liberal' and 'advanced'. Seurat in the parlor, SAVAK in the basement. …Nothing pulls the art world into line faster than the sight of an imperial checkbook… The main beneficiary of this was Warhol…" – Robert Hughes

"Examine the works of your predecessors and learn a lesson" – The Holy Qur'an

The 'crippled-symmetry' of the political, gastronomical and historical ramifications that this sequence of subsumptions suggests provides an illuminating framework to connect the central works to their contingent architectural presentation.

"I think of the whole thing as a huge deep, sonorous Persian carpet suspended in the air." – Leonard French

A series of interventions are constructed to facilitate the provision of food and other distractions to the audience. A security entrance is reconfigured to apply 2000 volts of electricity to guests as they arrive. Dancers from the Merce Cunningham company will operate the electric chair and assist with the catering for the evening, which will be provided by McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Alcohol will be provided by Slave Pianos in specially constructed silver cans and from modified wine cask bladders.

"The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's. Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet." – Andy Warhol

"A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke... All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good." – Andy Warhol

Biographical details: Slave Pianos have surely justified their motto, "Nothing Human is Alien to Us". Its members have made music, pulled hoaxes, divorced, married, and even given birth. Slave Pianos have taken hostages, grown flowers, kept pets, written books, volunteered as human guinea pigs for medical research, played cricket, held picnics, put on plays, saved lives, studied, committed arson, committed suicide, murdered, raped, pushed drugs, gone mad, formed a union, and found God. Slave Pianos are Danius Kesminas, Michael Stevenson, Neil Kelly and Rohan Drape. Slave Pianos are represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.

_Nationalizing Aliens in Indonesia_ by Antariksa

Nationalizing Aliens in Indonesia

It should not come as a surprise that after the term BETA[^1] (Benda Terbang Aneh, or Strange Flying Object) was coined in the 1960s as the equivalent of UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), in its cultural pratices Indonesia the notion was never be the part of the discourse of science, but a supernatural discourse. As discourses on politics, economy, and sports, discourses on aliens or unidentified creatures in Indonesia, UFOs and USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects), are almost always linked with mystical stories that have their roots in various cultures in Indonesia. Up until today, these stories play an important part in the shaping of Indonesia's mass recognition for all political agencies and events. They are constantly reproduced and reified.

The tale of Jaka Tarub may be the oldest written narration in Java. Included in Babad Tanah Jawi (The Javanese Court Chronicle), which was published in 1722,[^2] it tells of the relationship of a man and a humanoid entity from space.

The central character of this story is Jaka Tarub, a dashing young man with super powers. He comes in and out of jungles to hunt on a sacred mountain. On this mountain, there is a pond. One day, he sees seven goddesses swimming in the pond. Allured by their beauty, Jaka Tarub steals one of their scarves. After the goddesses come out of the water, they dress up and get ready to return to heaven. One of the goddesses, unable to find her scarf, cannot fly along with her friends. They leave her behind as they must go back before dusk. Jaka Tarub then appears before her, pretending to offer help. The goddess by the name of Nawangwulan agrees to follow him home. To cut the story short, Jaka Tarub marries Nawangwulan, and in the future their offspring, with their semi-god qualities, become the rulers of Mataram, one of the largest and longest-standing kingdoms in Java. According to this tale, the ancestors of the rulers of Java, with Yogyakarta as its center, were a breed between a human being and a creature from outer space.

In regard to USOs, some Indonesians talk about them in relation to putri duyung, or mermaids.[^3] A legend from Riau talks of a couple of husband and wife living on the coast of an island in the Natuna Archipelago. In the story, the wife was five-month pregnant. One day, the wife said: "Dear husband, the tide is low this afternoon. I fancy myself some setu (sea berries). I have been craving for it and I would like to have some today." The man agreed, although questions arose within him, for setu are not tasty and they grow underwater. Later on the beach, the husband caught fish while the wife ate all the setu she could find on the shore. Once she could no longer find any on the beach, she walked into the water for more. The man warned his wife of the rising tide, but she would not listen. After some time, he realized that his wife was missing,only to see her swimming too far from the shore. He shouted for her to return, but she simply told him to wait for her. She kept on eating the berries and paid no attention to her husband's fearful shouts. She swam farther and farther away to the sea, and her husband became more and more terrified, forcing him to call his friends. Suddenly, something strange happened. He saw his wife's feet morphing into a fish tail. People later referred to her as the buyung (pregnant) fish. Several generations later, the term changed into duyung. Reports on the sighting of mermaids are rare. The people of Natuna, however, still talk of a mermaid appearing sometime around 1965-1966 (the end of President Sukarno's reign) and in 1998 (when President Suharto resigned), triggering the belief that such a sighting can only mean a massive change in the country's political scene.

In Java, USOs are linked to a most well-known and most important supernatural deity in Indonesia's political history: Nyai Roro Kidul or Ratu Kidul (Queen of the South Sea). Every political leader in the history of Java and post-colonial Indonesia is always related to the figure of Ratu Kidul. All kings of Yogyakarta, as well as Sukarno and Suharto, were believed to have a special relationship with her. It is often said that the Queen of the South is their invisible wife, ready to strengthen their position in Indonesia's political scene and to warrant their spiritual connection to Java's past rulers — a common theme in Indonesia's messianic nationalism discourses.[^4]

Unlike the sea-berry-eating mermaid who "presents" herself through a visual appropriation, those who practice kejawen or believe in Javanese mystical tales say that the presence of Ratu Kidul can only be felt through fragrant smells brought about by the winds, or through sounds such as hisses and loud noises.[^5] The most reproduced story of Ratu Kidul visitations involves the lampor, or Ratu Kidul cavalry with its stamping horses. In Yogyakarta, old people would relate stories of lampor as coming from the south sea, charging along the Code River, and then back to the south sea. This, they say, means that Ratu Kidul and her army was visiting the heart of the City. Some remember of the sound of lampor as appearing in 1965-1966, during nights when abductions and slaughters of people related to the Communist party were carried out by the Indonesian army under Suharto's orders. They say that the lampor came to claim the lives of the communists, making them new recruits in the Queen's very own army. The supernatural entity may be identified through the senses of smelling and hearing, but as a consequence it is ephemeral and leaves no trace behind. If the Queen of the South Sea wishes to leave more lasting trace it was in the form of disasters: big waves that can drag and drown anyone, whirlpools that can suck boats into the deep end of the sea, earthquakes, or tsunamis.

Since the 1970s, more modern forms of reportage on UFO have appeared in magazines such as Aku Tahu, Aneka BETEBEDI, Mekatronika, Omega, and INFO UFO (now BETA-UFO). These magazines generally talk about UFOs in a scientific manner, although many of their articles are mere adaptations of those from foreign magazines. Out of these magazines, BETA-UFO stands as being distinctive. The magazine provides local contents in each of its editions, for example in the form of readers' reports on UFO and USO sightings in Indonesia. It also has a "comparative study page" that put local aliens and their "imported" counterparts side by side. One edition has tuyul compared with gray aliens.[^6] The magazine also has a "creative page," allocated for those who wish to share personal sighting experiences through images. One contributor that particularly caught my attention was Dendi Virsa Pribadi, who depicted his experience of sighting a UFO hovering over the famous Selamat Datang (Homecoming) Monument in Jakarta, and also shared two works illustrating the popular story of Borobudur and Prambanan temples being alien vehicles.[^7]

INFO UFO did not miss the opportunity to present one of the most popular, modern abduction stories from Indonesia, namely that of Sudjana Kerton (1922-1994), a famous artist who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in a hilly region in Bandung, West Java, in 1979.

Kerton said he saw a mysterious, disc-shaped aircraft beaming a light toward the Dago Pakar Hill Range at night, as if looking for something. And then, it flew toward Kerton's studio. All of a sudden, the strange aircraft shone its light around Kerton's body, as if hypnotizing him. In a "half-conscious" state, Kerton felt the presence of two robot-like aliens with a stiff walking gait and a height of roughly 95 centimeters. He could not resist as they ushered him past his front yard before guiding him into the craft that was hovering above the ground. The glaring light, functioning like a fine electromagnetic staircase, allowed him to get on board. Kerton felt that he was being taken to a strange place where everything was white. In that place, he met with four pallid aliens around 3 meters tall. Kerton explained how he remembered them as being gigantic, looking like Mongolians with raised tips at the outer ends of their slanted eyes and lips so thin that they could only be described as threadlike. They had pointed noses, and their heads were hairless.[^8]

The story is important as Kerton holds an important place in the history of Indonesia's modern fine arts: he was known as a nationalistic artist and was involved in the documentation of guerilla battles during Indonesia's struggle against Dutch colonialism in the 1940s.[^9] To me, Kerton's story is as important as those of the relationships of Ratu Kidul and the kings of Yogyakarta, Sukarno, as well as Suharto.

Visual appropriations of aliens in post-colonial Indonesia, namely efforts to turn them into images, which began in the 1950s, can be seen as the emergence of a political order in which their "visibility" was used to create a mass recognition for all political agencies and events through the circulation of images. The emergence of visual appropriations of UFOs in post-colonial Indonesia, as well as the efforts to constantly relate them with the actual political scene, can be understood through the same perspective, namely that materialization and reification something that was the other—be it from the West, from a different world (a mystical one), or from a different time period (from the past and future). Mystical powers have been made real, and have been nationalized through the mediation of images.

Antariksa

[^1]: The term BETA was coined by an Indonesian air force pilot named J. Salatun in the 1960s. Salatun wrote many working papers and books on UFO, and was later appointed the head of LAPAN (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, or the National Aeronautics and Space Institute) — a government institution that deals with UFO-related issues, among others. In the 1970s, Aneka magazine proposed another term, which did not quite catch up: BETABEDI (Benda Terbang Belum Dikenal, or Yet To Be Identified Flying Object).

[^2]: Followers of kejawen (Javanese mysticism) generally believe that Babad Tanah Jawi is a history book on Java. However, historians such as Ras have come to regard the book as muddled with mythology, cosmology, and fairy tales. See J.J. Ras, "The Genesis of the Babad Tanah Jawi: Origin and Function of the Javanese Court Chronicle," Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1987; Deel 143, 2de/3de Afl.: 343-356.

[^3]: See reports such as "Apakah Putri Duyung Berkaitan dengan Fenomena USO?" (Are Mermaids Related to USO Phenomena?), INFO UFO, 2002; 13 (2): 26-30.

[^4]: In regard to Sukarno's relationship with Ratu Kidul and her mystical role in Indonesia's anti-colonial struggle, see Robert Wessing, "A Princess from Sunda: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul," Asian Folklore Studies, 1997; 56 (2): 317–353.

[^5]: For a more recent research on the seen and the unseen aspects of Ratu Kidul, see Karen Strassler, "Seeing the Unseen in Indonesia's Public Sphere: Photographic Appearances of a Spirit Queen," Comparative Studies in Socitey and History, 2014; 56(1): 98-130.

[^6]: See for example "Apakah Tuyul Mirip Alien" (Do Tuyuls Look Like Alien) INFO UFO, 2001; 1 (1); "Apakah Jenglot Termasuk Jenis Peri" (Are Jenglots A Kind of Fairy), INFO UFO, 2001; 8(1): 38-39; see also "Apakah Putri Duyung Berkaitan dengan Fenomena USO?" (Are Mermaids Related to USO Phenomena?), which I mentioned earlier.

[^7]: BETA UFO, 2008; 14: 18-19.

[^8]: This part of Kerton's life was set aside in every texts on the history of Indonesia modern art, except in one unpopular 1996 book of 198 pages by Dedy Suardi, Tafakur di Galaksi Luhur: Kerton Diculik UFO? (A Contemplation on a Majestic Galaxy, Was Kerton Abducted by UFO?), Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya Publisher. A comic version of the story was published by INFO UFO, 2001; 6(1): 24-28.

[^9]: See Astri Wright et. al., 1999, The Revolution & Evolution of Sudjana Kerton, Bandung: Sanggar Luhur Bandung.

_The Lepidopters_ by John McCaughey

The Lepidopters

Astra concerts traditionally travel in time and in geography, moving among musical artefacts of differing provenance. The choir as a medium of performance has a special place across the whole span of musical history — a collective human presence whose repertory dramatises interactions, contradictions and affinities between contemporary composition and other times and places. Such things in our programs are frequently expounded by movement within the architectural space itself, and by shifts in the varied sonic directions that a building can offer.

In The Lepidopters, the Astra Choir has the privilege of being placed in the physical presence of other modes of sound, visuality and vitality! The work of Slave Pianos has traditionally evolved from unique forms of research and creation, such as could only result from a cooperative of acoustic and visual artists. Invariably they also take issue with histories in both domains. The Lepidopters, as our second large collaboration with them, draws in a performative cooperation of a new and different order — Punkasila from Yogyakarta joining a multi-directional array of voices, players, film and text — gathered around the central sculptural presence of the automated Sedulur Gamelan. The choir offers its own direction among the projections of images, materials and scenarios assembled by the Slave Pianos creators in their tale of moths. New choral compositions by Slave Pianos draw their designs from Robert Smithson's visual compositions. In one case, choir is combined with a frenetic 'history-remembering' solo piano and other instruments; in the other, thirty-two vocal lines enter a micro-tonal domain, in cooperation with the gamelan sculpture itself.

Further choral images in the program come from widespread origins:

  • from the end of the Thirty Years War, with Heinrich Schütz's 'Geistliche Chormusik' of 1648: Many will come from the East and West and will sit down with Abraham… there will be wailing and clattering of teeth;

  • from two centuries later, Robert Schumann's (1848) emphatically original double-choir setting of a Goethe poem — God's is the East, God's is the West — which reflects the poet's deep knowledge and interest in oriental and Arab art, Islam and the Koran;

  • from present-day Venice, the premieres of two new Agnus Dei settings: by Gianluca Geremia, a young composer at the Venice Conservatorium, whose treatment of this final movement of the Mass liturgy makes oblique reference to Erik Satie's keyboard Mass of the Poor (1895);

  • and by Gianandrea Pauletta, where the words are set into a flutter of multiple reiterating voices, which settle and then take off again.

John McCaughey

_IF_ by Chris Kraus

IF

If a mandible is an insect's jaw

And the collection of islands united as Indonesia contains thousands of species of insects including a wide range of Lepidopters

And Lepidopters are an order of winged insects, including all butterflies and moths

And one of the three common features of this order is holometabolism, or complete metamorphosis

Then moths are pure sex

And a Hindu tradition persists throughout Indonesia even though Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country

If Rati, the Hindu goddess of love and the god Kama's favored companion, is understood to represent a fecund force for enjoyment, a euphemism for non-procreative sex; if she is an avatar of arousal, desire, and (incongruous also to western culture) prosperity … then she, herself, is actually somewhat moth-like

And moths, with their penchant for darkness, attraction to light and somber wings are not necessarily lesser than butterflies.

If cone-shaped clouds gather in swaths over the sky like larvae

And the TV announces: RETURN OF THE MOTHS?

And an American stealth ship called the Jack B Quick is anchored offshore Indonesia

And Punkasila is slated to play in Djakarta but the airports are closed and the curfew is active again but the population remains busy with its own problems

And the bomb clock says 00:01

Then CHRYLSWEET, an innocent sex-loving local girl in a short dress with bare legs and sneakers who's texting a MISTEREX on a dark road somewhere in Indonesia, is destined to become Queen of the Moths

And time will stretch out like indigenous rubber.


The Lepidopters, Mark von Schlegell's second full-length graphic novel, is, like the rest of his work, a bracing, bewildering, and finally wholly enlightening mix of pulp fiction, high science, calculus and fantasy that hurtles its readers past markers of Shakespearean verse, revolutions, extinctions, American realism, nature and sex, technology and ancient mythologies. Von Schlegell's texts are a very strange drug in which one may experience absolute clarity within discrete fragments, while at the same time feeling oneself slipping, or even dissolving, within a general network of chaos. To read von Schlegell's work is to become physically disoriented. Like the best science fiction, his writings are true to the present. And in this case, it's a present rendered in its most acute, heightened form.

In The Lepidopters, he borrows the name of the CIA spy boat Jack B Quick, and the character name 'Michael Moran' from Alan Moore, the visionary graphic novelist and writer who created Miracleman for Marvel Comics.) Alan Moore's 'Michael Moran' is a reporter who morphs into Miracleman. Here, in The Lepidopters, he is a half-Vietnamese, half-American researcher or scientist ambiguously employed by the CIA, who will eventually become the consort of the enemy-revolutionary Queen of the Moths. When Moran's CIA research/stealth vessel, the Jack B Quick, anchors offshore Indonesia, he rows into land and checks into the Room 11-A of the Unik Motel. In this strangely moth-rich environment, he meets Cheryl Sweet. Arguably more sexually prolific than her prostitute friend who works at the motel, Cheryl approaches the Unik in constant phone contact with MISTEREX who, in the third mandible, will be revealed as an alias for the Head Moth, whose real name is Ornikon. If The Lepidopters were a spy novel, MISTEREX would be Cheryl's control. Watching over her he imparts fragments of moth wisdom. For example: MISTEREX: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NOW. Cheryl engages Michael in all kinds of sex in Room 11-A. She's a prim, temple-going Indonesian daughter and student; she is Rami, the Hindu sex goddess. Like MISTEREX/Ornikon, Cheryl has more than one psyche or being … which might be to say, she is just like a moth.

OK. THEY ALL LIKE SEX. BUT EVERY MOTH IS SINGULAR. EVERY MOTH IS LIKE A DISTILLATION OF PURE PERSONALITY. IT IS WHY WE DON'T SAY MOTHS. THE MOTHS ARE ALWAYS ANY ONE

She says while Michael is kneeling before her …

Between their first meeting and Michael's conversion, Cargo Cultism will be explained and overthrown by a duo of bookish anarchists; Punkasila will perform; Moran will kind-of defect from the CIA; curfews will be imposed and uprisings fought; the moths will prevail and Punkasila will sing

EVERYTHING IS NAKED EVERYTHING IS PLAIN
TO SERVE MOTH! TO SERVE MOTH BRAIN!

and we will be left with the delicate music made by a single muslin-winged moth as it alights on a keyboard. Too much light for the moths is vulgar.

Chris Kraus, 2014

_Confusion of Angles_ by Chris McAuliffe

CONFUSION OF ANGLES

[W]hile I strive for the effects of randomness on one level, the effect is achieved by a tightly controlled system of internal reference, puns, ironies, logicjumps which no single reader may be fairly expected to follow … and should give the effect, among others, of time in a state of flux, men in a state of introverted confusion, close to fugue. (Michael Moorcock[^1])

The Lepidopters is a mutant performance dreamed up by the eccentric think-tank that is Slave Pianos. It melds Surrealism and B-movies, paranoia and metaphysics, fear and fantasy. In structure and mood it draws on new wave sci fi authors of the 1960s and '70s; Moorcock's 'randomness' meets Ballard's 'complex of polyperverse acts'.[^2] The libretto is a science fiction comic book, written in Germany by Mark von Schlegell and illustrated in Indonesia by Iwank Celenk. The show hits the stage like a Roger Corman movie come to life. The ghost of American artist, Robert Smithson, stalks the set; his quirky psychedelic minimalist sculptures are repurposed as props, costumes and electric guitars. Indonesian art school punk rockers Punkasila arrive, as if through a wormhole direct from London's Roundhouse circa 1972, to deliver a silver lamé–wrapped serving of glam space rock.

THE ENTROPY EXHIBITION

The Lepidopters, like early sci fi stories, has its roots in the Gothic. It's a nightmarish adventure in an exotic location. The protagonist, Mr Moran, finds himself in Jawa Tengah province, Indonesia, where he must do battle with an alien moth species. Here, the plot shifts into the idiom of classic mid-twentieth-century sci fi. Cold War paranoia is displaced onto extra-terrestrial invaders and radiation-poisoned mutants. Add women and weaponry to the mix and you've got a Freudian field day of castration anxiety and over-compensation. But these are just the broad brush elements of the narrative. What drives The Lepidopters is the sceptical explorations of inner, rather than outer space, initiated by new wave sci fi writers like Aldiss, Moorcock and Ballard. No more space-age Daniel Boones traversing the galactic frontiers of future centuries. No more hypertrophic, yet conveniently miniaturised, technology propelling everything from warp drives to universal translators. No more generation-spanning space operas and neo-Homerian sagas played out among the stars. To writers with Vietnam, Watergate, Marshall McLuhan and RD Laing on their minds, 2001: a space odyssey looked like a 'pageant'; an 'historical romance'[^3] closer to Gone with the Wind than the not-too-distant dystopian future.

The Lepidopters is set in the here-and-now and hints at a bleak tomorrow. It's a world on the brink of disaster, whose coordinates are defined by conspiracy theory and schizophrenia rather than science and reason. In 1966, Ballard demanded that sci fi explore 'the jigs and props of our consciousness'[^4] rather than the distant reaches of the galaxy. By now these jigs and props are looking pretty shaky, especially for a protagonist holed up in a cheap hotel in Indonesia. 'Maybe we can go back in time to stop the bomb', suggests Mr Moran. Yeah, right. That'll work for Bill and Ted, dude, but not here. The landscape of new wave was 'a zone of advanced entropy, a collapsed undifferentiated environment'.[^5] A world of ruins, fragmentation and decay. A psyche stifled by ennui, loss of faith in humanity or science, and resigned to an imminent end (with a whimper, rather than a bang, naturally). That's what attracted Robert Smithson to writers like Aldiss and Ballard. He found in them scenes of industrial decrepitude, environmental decay and entangled time that mirrored his own explorations of stasis and endless reflection. In novels like Aldiss's An Age, set in a prehistoric landscape, we can recognise a Smithsonian landscape. Paleontological fragments, geology and time are piled haphazardly in jumbled strata; 'They lay heaped about meaninglessly … Everywhere about, they made a confusion of angles, while underneath them lay snares of shadow.'[^6] In Smithson's sculptures, mirrors and crystals are metaphors for an art world grinding to a halt. Inner space again. The jigs and props of art deteriorating like those of consciousness. 'The surface gestalt lies in ruins, splintered and unfocusable, the undifferentiated matrix of all art lies exposed, and forces the spectator to remain in the oceanic state of the empty stare when all differentiation is suspended.'[^7] No, not Aldiss or Ballard, but Anton Ehrenzweig, the Jungian art educationalist whose theories Smithson cited.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT ROBERT

Robert Smithson; psychedelic minimalist, earthworks sculptor, writer, theorist. A cool dude in the New York art world in the 1960s, when a cool scene was at its coolest. Girls wanted to talk with him, guys wanted to talk like him. His dealer was 3M heiress, Virginia Dwan. His wife was smart and stylish artist, Nancy Holt. He had a date book chock full of appointments with Bob [Morris], Phil [Glass], Annette [Michelson] and Dan [Flavin]. Drinks with Nico. Then off to a Captain Beefheart gig.[^8] He was so cool that even the cool guys paid homage. Jim Carroll – teenage prodigy, junkie, poet, punk musician – said Smithson was 'the one person who frequented Max's for whom I had total respect.'[^9] That's Max's as in Max's Kansas City, the coolest bar in New York. So cool that Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe couldn't get in when they were kids. Smithson left an unpaid bar tab of $997.97 at Max's when he died in a plane crash in 1973.[^10] That's about $5000 in today's money. That's some serious cool … the drinking, and the keeping of the tab at bay. There're artists who'd consider that a career-defining achievement. Carroll bumped into Smithson one night on a downtown street. Jim had been trying to track down the terminal point of a laser beam art installation. When he found it, Smithson was already there. Of course. They, like, rapped. Smithson gave him some advice on ambition. 'The point is', he said, 'we don't all of us want fame.' 'Come back to Max's', Smithson said, 'and I'll buy you a beer.' Of course. What's another couple of beers on a $900 tab? Might as well clock it over into four figures.

An intellectual, a wise-ass. A little bit of Beat and a whole lot of downtown. The smokin', drinkin' Korean War vets who built the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake for Smithson in 1970 thought he was a hippie who 'smelled like he hadn't hit the shower for days.'[^11] That'll happen if you wear your Greenwich Village leather pants out in the Utah sun. But he won them over in the end. Bob Phillips, the foreman of the crew, thought the whole project 'was kind of weird', until a French film crew turned up with a helicopter: 'That's when I thought that this guy must know something that we don't'.[^12] And that's kind of what the next generation of artists thought about Smithson too. Weird is always bankable. Knowing something no one else does is the gold standard. A tragic early death brings out the latent romantic in all young artists, but it was the publication of Smithson's collected writings in 1979 that sealed his status as a go-to role model. Here was a guy who moved seamlessly from Borges to Barthes to B-grade science fiction movies. Page after page: complex ideas about time, space, landscape, vision and philosophy. Snotty: Smithson puts the boot in plenty, especially when it came to Clement Greenberg and his 'Just the paint, ma'am' approach to abstraction. Funny, too: 'The first time I saw Don Judd's "pink Plexiglas box," it suggested a giant crystal from another planet.'[^13] And this description of Passaic, New Jersey, the town of his birth: 'a typical abyss or an ordinary void. What a great place for a gallery!'[^14] Smithson was a wildly discursive thinker. Ready to lose himself in 'the illusory babels of language … to intoxicate himself in dizzying syntaxes, seeking odd intersections of meaning, strange corridors of history, unexpected echoes, unknown humors, or voids of knowledge.'[^15] Riffing on Poe, Ballard and Robbe-Grillet while quoting Roland Barthes, the Manson family and the Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey, Smithson embarked on a quest 'full of bottomless fictions and endless architectures' at the end of which was 'only meaningless reverberations'.[^16] What attracted Slave Pianos to Robert Smithson was first of all his reputation, both 'soft' and 'hard'. That is, both his cult coolness and his academic status as American postmodernism's John the Baptist. But since then they've been seduced by his practice: his iconoclastic, even Oedipal, attacks on modernism's gurus; his scepticism towards art's formal edifices; the way he used hare-brained, even monomaniacal projects to build knowledge, in-jokes, parodies. His discovery that being out there was what got you in there, to the heart of the art world. It could be said of The Lepidopters, as Smithson said of his own writing, The following is a mirror structure built of micro and macro orders, reflections, critical Laputans, and dangerous stairways of words, a shaky edifice of fictions that hangs over inverse syntactical arrangements … coherences that vanish into quasiexactitudes and sublunary and translunary principles.[^17]

SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN

So it makes sense to add space opera to the mix. To the extent that anything makes sense, that is. Slave Pianos have learned a lot from Smithson, Fluxus and other movements at the pataphysical end of the modern art spectrum. David Byrne's exhortation – 'Stop making sense' – could pass for their motto. (Would it have the same ring in Indonesian, I wonder?) If it's weird scenes in the goldmine that you're after, then space rock – an arcane sub-genre of English psychedelia – is a good place to start. It's rock music that echoes the cosmological scale of EL Doctorow and Frank Herbert's so-called space operas; multi-volume sagas of galactic empires, quests and power struggles. Think early Pink Floyd, with songs like 'Astronomy Domine' and 'Interstellar Overdrive'. Or Hawkwind, with albums titled X In Search of Space and Space Ritual. Loosely-linked song cycles or concept albums pursuing themes of interstellar travel and off-world romance. Characterised by long-form jamming, layers of organ and string-bending guitar solos. To be performed on a grandiose scale using woozy light shows, props, costumes, electronic equipment. At its most convincing when the gig involved exotic locations (such as Pompeii or Stonehenge), the wearing of shiny capes and platform heels, and a fug of what the tabloids called 'the strong, sweet smell of incense'. But don't mistake this for camp parody: adding space rock to Robert Smithson doesn't deliver Spiral Tap. The Lepidopters have unearthed, not invented, a pattern of hybridisation between art, music and new-wave sci fi. They are revealing, in a raucous, polyperverse performance, the significance of quasi-legitimate cultural genres — sci fi, comic books, punk rock — in the historical formation of postmodern culture. Like Lawrence Alloway, the early theorist of Pop Art, they are happy to invert the cultural pyramid, to relocate a trashy monster movie from the base to the apex. And, like Alloway, they would say: 'our feeling was never that we were slumming, or getting away from it all, or not being serious. It was our assumption that what we felt at, say, Tarantula, was as serious and interesting and worthwhile as our other aesthetic feelings.'[^18]

Chris McAuliffe

[^1]: Michael Moorcock, 'In Lighter Vein', in his Sojan (Manchester: Savoy, 1977), quoted in Colin Greenland, The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in science fiction (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 146.

[^2]: JG Ballard, 'Tolerances of the human face', Encounter, Vol. 33, No. 3 (September 1969), 12.

[^3]: JG Ballard quoted in Brooks Landon, Science Fiction After 1900: from the steam man to the stars (London: Routledge, 2002), 151.

[^4]: Colin Greenland, The Entropy Exhibition, 57.

[^5]: Greenland, The Entropy Exhibition, 61.

[^6]: Brian Aldiss, An Age (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), 148.

[^7]: Anton Ehrenzweig, The Hidden Order of Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 121.

[^8]: Smithson's appointment diaries are held in the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art, Robert Smithson Papers.

[^9]: Jim Carroll, Forced Entries: the downtown diaries, 1971–1973 (New York: Penguin, 1987), 42.

[^10]: Micky Ruskin, the proprietor of Max's, sent Smithson's widow the tab. It's now held in the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art, Robert Smithson Papers, microfilm roll 3832, frames 674–683.

[^11]: Dan Egan, 'Coming Around: First a Joke, Then a Jewel for the Guys Who Built Spiral Jetty', Great Salt Lake: An Anthology, ed. Garry Topping (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2002), 242.

[^12]: Egan, 'Coming Around', 243.

[^13]: Robert Smithson, 'The Crystal Land' (1966), in Robert Smithson: the collected writings, ed. Jack Flam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 7.

[^14]: Robert Smithson, 'A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey' (1967), in Robert Smithson, ed. Flam, 72.

[^15]: Robert Smithson, 'A Museum of Language in the Vicinity of Art' (1968), in Robert Smithson, ed. Flam, 78.

[^16]: Smithson, 'A Museum of Language', 78.

[^17]: Smithson, 'A Museum of Language', 78.

[^18]: Lawrence Alloway, 'Pop art since 1949' [December 1962], reprinted in Lawrence Alloway, Imagining the Present, ed. Richard Kalina (London: Routledge, 2006), 72.

_No-one Plays the Piano Anymore -- Slave Pianos' Sedulur Gamelan_ by Philip Brophy

No-one plays the piano anymore: Slave Pianos' Sedulur Gamelan

Arbitrary Culturation No.1 (maybe read this second)

How did things end up this way? This is the question to be asked incessantly should one wish to penetrate the conditions by which sound and music is made manifest.

Consider this random snapshot of how music exists today. An 'early music' ensemble: young and fresh out of college, dressed in black for that mix of edginess and formality so beloved of Melbournians who call themselves 'Melbournians'. Performing at a Yarra Valley winery on a Sunday: how spiritually secular, what with the day, the blood of Christ, and the transubstantiated bourgeois cuisine in place of the pasty Eucharist. Keeping alive the art of music: attended nonetheless by hordes of the grey dollar, subscribing to ABC Classical-FM on their death-beds, their Volvos hard-tuned to the station for their slow cruises into the gentrified rural prettiness of greater Victoria. Advertised by well-designed flyers: depicting things like strawberries dipped in chocolate (how Viagra-sensual), Photoshop layers of sepiatoned grape vines (how digital-rustic), wide-screen sunset vistas (how symbolic-autumnal), and printed on eco-correct paper. The event is likely supported by some ethical tax-dodge hedge-fund operation of upper-tier professionals who now channel their dollars into 'the arts' like Philip Adams preparing his grand tomb for the financial afterlife.

Attending such an affair, one could listen to the music. But is that music really there? Is the ensemble even playing music? There might be the wafting presence of some archaic language floating as coded vibrations across the air, but there is equally a deafening silence unleashed by the affair's mechanics, posturing and site-specificity. I hear no pre-Baroque chordal flirtation; I hear the stomach acids of the audience digesting their Stephanie Alexander-style repast, intermingled with the gurgling forensics of heartburn, acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome, all exacerbated by quality wine and fine local produce. What is the function of music here? What is the reason for the theatre of its presentation? What is the relational effect between its sonority and its social reception? It's all like a scene from a scripted movie — but, as per cinema's ambivalent and amoral linguistic operations, it is simultaneously celebration and damnation. It could be written by Joanna Murray-Smith or Hannie Rayson as a witty acknowledgement of their audience (as per the undying 'quality' template Australian cinema and 'realist' theatre has rehearsed ever since the likes of Hotel Sorrento). Or it could be a septic posterisation of how vulgar, tacky, ignorant and self-centred 'the arts' has become in the over-marketed, over-accessible, over-neutralised twenty-first century. That 'early music' ensemble could have been constructed by me — right down to that fucking strawberry dipped in chocolate — as a solipsistic exercise in registering the tenor and contemporaneity of how music has ended up this way in this instance.

Whatever. The monumental conflict in perspectives on such an innocent manifestation of music is never uncovered, never sited, never sounded. For the description, evaluation and postulation of music today remains profoundly dumb in regards to its acknowledgement of how it has ended up the way it has. Musical discourse — if indeed it even exists — today reads more like a series of Wiki-fied descriptions prised from press-releases derived from Wikipedia entries about music's declared purpose and the aspects of its alignment. That 'early music' ensemble, for example, thus plays music from history, keeping it alive, making it accessible, and providing people with access to an unassailable definition of 'beauty', an encounter which is deemed to be therapeutic for the soul, the spirit, and one's all-round well-being. Me — I get labelled as a nihilist just because I venture how deadening and decrepit such a display is. While so many champion the naïve dribble of Julian Assange and his retro-'90s 'information warrior' shtick (which is now the province of millennial Hollywood script-teams of late-thirties goatee-sporting nerds), they seem to be unaware of how they are drowning in the glut of all that 'free information' which queries nothing, states nothing, declares nothing, and evidences nothing. The childish prescription that information and its determining systems should be 'transparent' only nurtures an inability to discern the great opacity that makes up culture. That 'early music' ensemble is a deafening din of discursive density, rendered 'transparent' only by the paucity of critical analysis afforded it.

Arbitrary Culturation NO.2 (maybe read this first)

How did things end up this way? This is the question enabled by Slave Pianos' Sedulur Gamelan. The wish to penetrate the conditions by which its sound and music is made manifest is openly interrogated by this strange musical object-event. Officially described as 'two interlocking wooden structures that reconfigure elements of traditional Javanese architecture through the De Stijl philosophical principles of neoplasticism to create an abstraction of an eighteenthcentury double grand piano', the weird gamelan amalgam resulting from this design procedure leaves one querying its purpose. Essentially a modified gamelan hybrid into which has been incorporated electro-mechanics to trigger 'keyboard events' for sounding the Yogyakarta gamelan components (much as a piano can be sounded by the incorporation of the 'player piano roll'), Sedulur Gamelan answers that its purpose is to perform 'musical transcriptions of drawings by American artist Robert Smithson'.

You don't have to ask this of Sedulur Gamelan: it asks of itself for you. If musical discourse were in a healthier state (openly intellectual, problematising humanistic assumptions, querying the materiality of musical language and the immaterial significations unleashed by music's apparition), you would already be asking these questions as a matter of course. Consequently, Slave Pianos' multivalent projects are predicated on intellectual assemblages of references, consequences and collisions of musical and 'amusical' signification. Sedulur Gamelan casts an especially wide net to define its rhetoric and logic. But its allusions and associations are neither random, collagist nor absurdist. Indeed, the modus operandi of Slave Pianos is to tacitly suggest that it might be impossible to not uncover density of content and opacity of form in anything aligned to music.

Standing in front of Sedulur Gamelan and experiencing its audiovisuality like a 'theoretical hologram', I start with a sensation of the work channelling Harry Partch. But that's very '101': all nouveau instrument design acknowledges the hobo-visionary of Partch, musicologically sounding the world around him via just intonation and repurposed materials to generate an alternative harmonic manual to those born of European ideologies from Baroque to Romantic. Equally known is the historical silence accorded non-European tuning systems which augur as rigorous a symbiosis between tonality and harmonics as purveyed by Bach at his most 'temperamental'. The gamelan became a key musical object-event that inspired twentieth century modernist excursions in mapping out non-European compositional terrains and auditory sensations. So Sedulur Gamelan is clear about its base, both musicologically and sonically.

The shimmering tonality of the auratic gamelan timbres and their patterned harmonics and overtones notably evokes less a language — something authored and scripted according to a grammatical system — and more a space — an environment wherein sound frequencies collude to articulate a harmonic mirage that is far greater than the sum of its parts. This richness in tonality in gamelan music is regarded as extant and evident: it does not require authorial excavation to unearth its marvels, but in place requires training in hearing the interconnectivity between the associated gamelan components and performing a ritualistic score to honour the instrument's internal and 'living' tonality. Slave Pianos cross-wire such a machine of tonal aura with its polar opposite: the precision mechanics of robotic performance and scripted event-control. But the result is not a disingenuous artsy gesture typical of the Fluxus legacy: the sound emitted by Sedulur Gamelan is the gamelan — something greater than either its performance or its appropriation. It is precisely this surfeit or abundance of its tonality that inspired twentieth-century adventures in alternative tuning systems.

Now we throw into that musicological mix composed interpretations of a series of Robert Smithson drawings, many of which read as proto-manuals or proposals for sculptural works and interventions with land. The result in Sedulur Gamelan is a series of meta-pastorals, which materialise or make manifest — via the gamelan's distinctive spatialisation effect (we could call such tonality a concretisation of harmony) — mirages or apparitions of land masses potentially imagined by Smithson. While the history of pastoralism in music is predicated on Euclidean physics which describe optical assessments of land in terms of mass, scale and distance, the Sedulur Gamelan compositions evoke that Partch-like 'transient hobo' just intonation inhabiting the vast spaces between the diatonic keyboard's determining topography. The absent or invisible composer (here interred as the executor of the compositions sounded through the modified gamelan's electro-mechanical triggering) becomes a proto-Smithson, or at least an aural ghost of his imaginary, utilising a harmonic approach maybe unthought-of by Smithson, but to which his visionary drawings are suitably aligned.

In 1988 at the Münchner Klaviersommer Jazz Festival, Herbie Hancock performed for the first time on a Bösendorfer grand piano modified by IBM to record the keyboards hammers' events and dynamics as he plays, and then replay that recorded data to engage electronic mechanisms to re-trigger the hammers as they had recorded Hancock's performance. (Hancock introduced it as 'a piano that would remember exactly what you played'.) After performing an improvisation on one Bösendorfer, Hancock then moved to a second one, hit F2 on an old IBM keyboard, then 'played along with' the original recording, now overlaying a secondary improvisation in concert with the mechanical reproduction of his initial improvisation. The two grand pianos prefigure the Sedulur Gamelan configuration — each facing the other, though in not so Futurist or Surrealist a flaying of the grand piano's exposed ribbing — but more importantly, Hancock's live duplication demonstrates another instance of how compositional strategies engage a 'master/slave' relationship in the act of sounding music.

Hancock's notion of 'playing with himself' accords with an African-American lineage of sonorised flights of liberation to which jazz testifies. Jazz's frenetic chromaticism and dense tetra-chordality is spurred by symbolic endeavours no matter how corny to free up harmonic space in severely restricted '40 acres and a mule' zones (i.e., European equal temperament). Hancock's mannered and quite daggy 'playing with himself' back in 1988 still speaks volumes when compared to the current vogue of 'Free Jazz' played by white bearded noisy-wannabes and their dicky little fuzz boxes. Theirs is a most phantasmal form of music, pumped up by a delusional Assange-like rhetoric of 'freedom'. For all music today is supremely defined by 'master/slave' interpolations — as anyone who wasted money on a concert by Daft Punk could testify. Indeed, Slave Pianos might be an inverted Daft Punk: constructing sci-fi and pseudoscience musical object-events that provide the staging for a self-inflicted slavery to the mechanical constrictions of their chosen instrumentation. After all, is that not what every performer is engaged in? Andre Rieu smarmily half-smiling with cocked-head on his 1667 Stradivarius as he scans the millions of Euros represented by the packed stadiums before his gaze. Kate Bush desperately and clumsily flipping around a bass cello while she enacts a fey-feminist interpretive ecumenical dance about a faux-folksy babushka mother-daughter tussle. Daft Punk donning retro-futuristic cargo cult costumery and camping up their l'amour des robots Françaises while pressing F2 on an old IBM keyboard. Slave Pianos turning on their Sedulur Gamelan.

This is how things end up the way they do.

Philip Brophy

_The Gametic Must Make Molting_ by Anna Parlane

'The Gametic Must Make Molting'

Locked in their robotic embrace, the Sedulur Gamelan, the Gamelan Sisters, obediently reproduce the sounds that are wired from their cyborg control console. Drawings have been converted into musical notation, and notation converted into sound: the music is performed mechanically. The original images that became notation, and then sound, to be played by these enslaved siblings were conceived by American artist Robert Smithson: He who wrought Sculpture from the Flesh of the Land. They were drawings of his ideas for sculptures; in their own way, they too were scores. The sisters' genetic inheritance, however, is more diffuse. It can be read across their unwieldy bodies: a strain of De Stijl is visible in the joints of the wooden frame which houses the Gamelan ensemble. Here, the cross-breeding of traditional Javanese architecture and the Western grand piano has produced something almost unrecognisable, something alien.

The mad scientists who collectively sired these genetically improbable twins are themselves a motley bunch. With a core membership of artists and composers, Slave Pianos' porous boundaries allow them to collaborate with a miscellany of special guests: an Indonesian punk band, a science fiction writer, musicians of every stripe. Gleefully conjoining a logicdefying array of cultural references, they have spawned twin creatures that, in their sheer heterogeneity, recall the experimental offspring brought into being by generations of science fiction writers. Think of Ira Levin/Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Cronenberg's The Brood, von Trier's The Kingdom, not to mention Demon Seed, Extro, Possession — even the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ. But in the case of the Sedulur Gamelan, the murderous alien twins birthed by nice-girl-turned-demon-mother Sandy in the low-budget 1982 flick Inseminoid spring to mind. Or perhaps the 'constructs' in Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood trilogy, hybrid babies which are the product of a political and biological compromise made between humans and aliens, and which represent a last resort for the survival of the human race in a postapocalyptic world. And, as sure as a pregnancy in a science fiction plotline will turn into a nightmare scenario of uncontrolled reproduction and destruction, Slave Pianos' new alien birth will, no doubt, exceed the expectations, and control, of its creators. We all know where alien-human reproduction leads: a lot of sneaking about in dark corridors, hapless crew members succumbing to violent death at the hands (or tentacles) of a rampaging mother or child, a heroic and desperate final stand, and, inevitably, a sequel. Because you can't just have one. Once the genie's out of the extraterrestrial reproduction bottle, things are only going to escalate. The alien-human hybrid clone of Ellen Ripley in 20th Century Fox's dubious fourth installment of the Alien franchise is testament to this. As Ripley correctly predicts to the scientist and wannabe alien farmer Dr Jonathan Gediman, with respect to the alien queen that Ripley was genetically re-engineered to birth: 'She'll breed. You'll die.'

All these parables about the monstrous reproductive capacity of the female body (and the monstrousness of attempts to control this capacity) have collectively helped to produce a sci fi stereotype of the female body as a site of transgression and a vessel for anxieties about unpredictable reproduction. But the transgression of boundaries is, of course, wholly fundamental to the risky and powerful processes of both biological and artistic evolution. As science fiction writer Robert Silverberg rightly points out in his foreword to Ellen Datlow's wonderfully titled anthology Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, 'The essential thing to keep in mind about sex is that its inherent purpose is to bring two alien beings together to create a third being different from them both.'[^1] Without the unruly seepage of genetic material across bodily confines, without the use and abuse of existing ideas and forms, new things and new bodies simply wouldn't come into existence, the magic and terror of the unanticipated would not occur. Instead, as Silverberg notes, and as Smithson well understood, inevitable entropic degradation would set in.

That being said, this analogy that I'm labouring between these two forms of creativity—artistic and biological—does have its limits. If it's taken too far, you end up with the kind of cultural Darwinism that underwrote colonialism, the kind that ranked cultures on a hierarchical evolutionary scale. The assumption that artistic production operates along the same principles as biological reproduction—that, long-term, its offspring evolve unidirectionally via same-species breeding and a series of generational refinements—resulted in horrific racism and cultural carnage, finally producing a weird fiction in which some cultures were seen to be more evolved than others. This fiction was established in part through methodical ethnographic documentation that glossed over the significant and inherent differences in various artistic forms in an attempt to precisely quantify their position on the imagined evolutionary spectrum.

This systematic documentation was, necessarily, a process of conversion that violently homogenised the object of ethnographic study. Reducing, for instance, a musical performance to mere sonic information, it enabled data from various sources to be compared and ranked. When Carl Stumpf, a comparative musicologist avant la lettre, made transcriptions and phonographic recordings of the songs of a Native American performing troupe that was visiting Berlin in 1885, the processes of converting live performance into written notation or wax phonograph cylinders profoundly altered the nature of his object of study. Technologies like the phonograph allowed Stumpf to visualise a grand project of empirical musical comparison, which would accurately measure 'the distance between Bach and Nuskilusta.'[^2] Riding roughshod over fundamental irreconcilability, Stumpf mistakenly assumed that cultural production and biological reproduction operated along similar principles; he saw an evolutionary continuum where there was, in fact, radical and multifaceted cultural difference.

The bricolage of existing cultural material that Slave Pianos performs, with tongue firmly in collective cheek, does similar violence to its sources. Slave Pianos' method of transcribing existing artworks into musical notation suitable for reproduction on a piano (or a Gamelan), comes directly from colonial-era comparative musicology. Just like Stumpf's recordings of Native American songs, Slave Pianos reduce the objects of their study into sonic information that can then be reproduced in all sorts of unpredictable forms and guises. In the same way that the reduction of female characters in sci fi plotlines to their biological function is simultaneously an expression of anxiety, awe and aggression in the face of reproductive volatility, Slave Pianos performs an act of love that destroys the object of its affection. With homage comes destruction; and destruction is necessarily a form of homage.

Is, then, the space opera epic The Lepidopters, within which the Gamelan Sisters play a central role, yet another iteration of pregsploitation, that endlessly fertile sci fi trope of the horror pregnancy in which the female-and-fertile becomes the victim of her own reproductive power? At the outset of the comic written by Mark von Schlegell and illustrated by Iwank Celenk, it seems that yes, it is. Alien moths invade Indonesia, intent on the colonisation of Earth via interspecies reproduction. A mysterious female character (sexually promiscuous: usually a sure sign that she will shortly bite the dust—only the pure survive) seems a likely candidate for becoming the vessel of humankind's demise. The setting for this dastardly act will be the Unik (eunuch?) Motel in Yogyakarta. However, as time and space loop and spiral back on themselves, the narrative seems less and less likely to rehearse this familiar trope.

Instead, we are thrown headlong into a warped temporality that is reminiscent of Smithson's thought and work. As Chris McAuliffe has described in a recent essay, science fiction's alternative conceptions of time became Smithson's 'riposte to formalism', a weapon that he could wield against the Greenbergian criticism that so dominated thinking about art in 1960s America.[^3] When, in a 1966 essay, Smithson claimed that 'the biological metaphor is at the bottom of all "formalist" criticism', he meant that Darwinian evolution and Greenbergian modernism share a teleological perspective: a faith in the unwavering progress of time's arrow, and the unidirectionality of the evolutionary development that is dragged along in its wake.[^4] Slave Pianos share Smithson's iconoclastic determination to corrupt the purity of formalism, to bend unidirectionality into a dissolving spiral. They have revived the politically and ethically tarnished methods of comparative musicology, but instead of using them to implement a system of hierarchical classification, Slave Pianos have repurposed this methodology as a mixing desk, a tool for interbreeding wildly disparate cultural forms. The Lepidopters, and its star performers the Sedulur Gamelan, are ludicrously heterogeneous, in the etymologically correct sense of the term: their heterogeneity is playful as well as seriously experimental. As with the rampant uncontrollability of sci fi's alien births, you simply don't know what you're going to end up with. The fertile machine that is Slave Pianos churns through sources in a reproductive cycle that is akin to the transformative 'molting' of the Lepidopters. As Madrigal, third ring bright representative of the Lepidopter Imperial Fleet insists: 'The gametic must make molting when molting must its hetero-gamete make. Come. All things can be made images and then be told again.'

Anna Parlane

[^1]: Robert Silverberg, 'Foreword' in Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, ed. Ellen Datlow (New York: St Martin's Press, 1996), xi.

[^2]: Carl Stumpf, quoted in Eric Ames, 'The Sound of Evolution,' Modernism/Modernity, Vol. 10, No. 2 (April 2003), 307.

[^3]: Chris McAuliffe, '"On the decrepit margins of time":
 Robert Smithson's science fiction tactics', in Making Worlds: Art and Science Fiction, ed. Amelia Barikin and Helen Hughes (Melbourne: Surpllus, 2013), 102.

[^4]: Robert Smithson, 'Quasi-Infinities and the Waning of Space', Arts Magazine, Nov 1966, reprinted in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, ed. Jack Flam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), note on 35.

_An elegy for the Societet Building_ by Syafiatudina

An elegy for the Societet Building

Or Notes from The Lepidopters at Societet, Yogyakarta

The chandelier is still there, hanging in the ceiling of Societet building, Yogyakarta. But no one, at least no one I know, has ever seen any light coming through its glasses. What once served as the majestic sign of the space, the chandelier is now collecting dust and perhaps some unexpected empathy.

But, Societet is not an abandoned building.

It's located inside the Taman Budaya Yogyakarta complex, among the bustling Beringharjo Market, which is the central traditional market of Yogyakarta, full of small bookshops where plenty of illicit forms of reference such as pirated books can be found, and behind the most touristic area of Malioboro Street. Far from isolated, Societet, along with Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, is managed by the government and is claimed to be the window onto Yogyakarta, the heart for all things cultural in the city. So how is it possible for a place that filled and surrounded by liveliness, such as Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, to be infested by symptoms of decay?

I always perceive claims of liveliness by Taman Budaya in a dubious light. Societet was part of a leisure centre for the privileged class during the Dutch colonial era. In this same place, my great grandfather died after experiencing a huge amount of loss from gambling. It was rumoured that my great grandfather had vowed to prefer death rather than living in poverty. He died right after a big loss, and left behind his family with barely anything.

'Are the moths really here? Is that their cocoon floating above the ocean? So is Chrylswt one of them? Or was she one of us, and then turned her back against us? What is "us"? What will her parents think about her activity in Unik Motel?'

Many years afterwards, during the New Order repressive regime, Taman Budaya — including Societet, which was established and managed by the government — became the space for "legitimate" forms of culture. The New Order regime had established many cultural centres, such as Taman Budaya, in different cities in Indonesia to locally regulate the cultural activity and ensure the display and performance of non-critical art. Since the downfall of the New Order and the emergence of alternative art spaces, institutions like Taman Budaya Yogyakarta are still struggling to locate their cultural role within the city.

Entering Taman Budaya Yogyakarta complex.

You will need to park your vehicle outside the complex, in front of the gate. Although there are plenty of spaces inside the complex for free, the parking assistants will insist you to park outside so they can charge you a parking fee, which is two thousand rupiah for a motorbike and four thousand rupiah for a car. This is not a scam. This is a small part from much larger parking mafia. These parking assistants are the frontliners and they have daily targets to accomplish. And they have to give some amount of their income to the police.

After passing through the gate, you will see Societet on your right side. There's one big banyan tree in front of the entrance door. The wooden doors are an ordinary brown. The hallway is always dimly lit and this creates a sluggish atmosphere within the building. A distinct contrast to its outside environment. But another different set of contrasts is being presented by The Lepidopters inside.

Under the pathetic dusty chandelier, on the stage to light old legitimate culture and current uncertainty, that night The Lepidopters came into existence with futuristic outfits and the shining guitars of Punkasila, Rachel Saraswati who sings Javanese musical tunes while constantly holding her stomach as if she will deliver a thousands of moths anytime soon. The Slave Pianos. The all-girl gamelan group, Sekar Jindra. The woman with a silver crown who played bass clarinet. The video with its combination of old Indonesian superhero films, the comics with moth invaders, and weird hexagonal motifs.

While all of this is playing simultaneously, many things started to occupy my mind. Is this the so-called East meets West? Traditional meets modern? But Australia is in the Southeast of Indonesia. So should it be called Southeast meets Northwest? Is there equal cooperation between each of the performing members? Is confusion becoming the sign of current legitimate art?

I guess this is the start of a long farewell to the world we all once knew.

Syafiatudina

Born in Melbourne, Syafiatudina, or for short Dina, is a researcher always seeking various new ways to develop different methods of knowledge inquiries, ranging from fieldwork research, to curating and performance. She is currently working as program manager and researcher at KUNCI Cultural Studies Center (www.kunci.or.id), in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Slave Pianos, *Moscow Stations / Last Stop East*, Programme Essay

Large Apartment, Never at Home

Coalmine manager a weight that as, the title implies, she had returned to pass along terrorists, Jewish children, prominent alcoholics. He wanted to have it like a tiramisu; that would mean the main course was buried by different cultural positions — at the bottom, people are slaving away to earn their bread or pasta and at the top people are dancing. Everyone only knows one and this must be said by me, who takes himself to be a shepherd. Choosing a place to live has been a problem of the first order.

Someone like him in many ways but primarily by being a mirror image, exactly reversed. There has not been a method except insofar as not having a method manifests itself as a method and I can enjoy someone who leaves all the work to others, who makes others drive and pays for the gas, a camera, plus a wristwatch, long pants, and a tie. With the rules printed in the student handbook, even as a child he used to call himself 'Dad'. He always wrote me on aerograms with neat handwriting, which I tried.

Which have by no means come to an end, let alone become impossible. To avoid possible misunderstandings, I would like to affirm on this occasion that I will continue to take an interest in them. What will matter in the end is whether and especially how. An ornate railing in a field where you no longer have to eat yoghurt, in every aspect where it seemed self-evident archaic bartering was much more prevalent, resulting in personal dependencies. Lists and charts of what would grow where.

War upset the rhythm of carrying out the work stipulated by the master plan, primarily of the tent-shaped church. Posting and mailing announcements is solid ground there and may be possible to stand with outstretched fingers — carrying law books in a big paper bag he taught me how to paste a piece of paper neatly. It needs to bear the traces of a mistake, the most simple one possible the reactions of even younger children — say, between ages four and seven.

When an acquaintance greets me on the street by removing his hat, what I see from a formal point of view shielded from the sidewalk by a wall of bamboo. On the other hand, this is for you if you want to wash up; we are going to be fat rich from this journey. A stage was built that the whole village could dance on, the cowboys rode out your parents responsible for everything. You know yourself that is not right. In the far distance on the edge of any large town, like thousands of others, on the edge of the blue vault of the sky to the right. (FP)

Slave Pianos, *Moscow Stations / Last Stop East*, Programme Essay

Translator's Preface

Samizdat is a compound word derived from sam and izdatel-stvo, meaning, in literal translation, self-publishing house. It was invented as a satire on the acronyms used by such official institutions a Gosizdat, the Soviet State Publishing House. Since there were no private presses in the USSR, most Samizdat literature appeared, like the 'first edition' of Erofeev's Moscow Circles, in one typescript copy. The variety of material thus produced was enormous, ranging from explorations of serious social and moral issues to satire and even pornography.

Most Samizdat and official Soviet literature published in the West belonged to the first category. As a result, many Western readers have a somewhat distorted view of contemporary Soviet literature. What we read in the West belongs mainly to the reformist mainstream represented by such writers as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, Sholokhov and Solzhenitsyn. The tradition of satire and grotesque, which has its roots in Gogol and which experienced a great revival in the twenties in the work of such writers as Bulgakov, Olesha and Zoshchenko, is under-represented. It is to this tradition that Erofeev's Moscow Circles (also known as Moscow–Petushki, Moscow to the End of the Line, and Moscow Stations) belongs. Written between 1969 and 1970, it originally circulated the Soviet Union underground literary scene in Samizdat form, before being first published in Israel in 1973.

About seventy miles east of Moscow, in the Vladimir region, lies the town of Petushki, or Little Cockerels. This town is the goal of the journey undertaken by the hero of Moscow Circles, one Benny Erofeev. The journey begins pleasantly enough with liberal doses of alcohol, Benny's recollections of "life at the top" as a cable-riggers' foreman, the sharing of recipes for outlandish cocktails, travellers' tales and dreams of glorious Petushki, where love will be fulfilled. But Benny is a loser. In Moscow, he always loses the Kremlin, and, on the Moscow–Petushki line he loses Petushki. Unaccountably, the train describes a circle which brings Benny back to Moscow and to a nightmare hunt in which he is the prey.

Express southwest, approximately 1926 miles and twenty-something years into the future, to the Greek island of Syros. It's 1993, and the profound German artist and alcoholic Martin Kippenberger has conceived of a new, equally unaccountable, underground global railway network. He would extend this network incrementally over the next four years — until his death at age forty-four in 1997 due to alcohol-induced liver cancer — by building new entryways to the subway in cities all around the world. Through this global underground, titled Metro-Net World Connection Series, sites as remote as Syros, Dawson City in Yukon Territory, Canada, Tokyo, Japan, Kassel, Germany (where the descending staircase floated temporarily on the banks of a lake during documenta X), and the Schindler House in West Hollywood become impossibly interconnected.

Eighteen years earlier in 1975, "Mr Fluxus" George Maciunas begins work on his propositional piece Caravan Expedition to Circumvent the World — an imaginary itinerary that pays visits to significant monuments of art, architecture, archaeology and theology around the world. Intricately mapped out like his Expanded Arts Practice diagram of 1966, this impossible task is treated meticulously. The locations are real, even if their interconnectedness by Kippenberger's railway and Maciunas' Caravan Expedition are not. And Kippenberger and Maciunas — like Erofeev writing Moscow Circles — plays on the absurd side of reality.

In the Soviet Union, this is a side of reality that was well known to Erofeev's compatriots. In the words of the émigré writer Nikolay Bokov (author of Nobody, John Calder, London, 1975): "Soviet life is a theatrical spectacle in which the entire population takes part, from the rulers to the ruled. The rulers set tasks and express aims in heroic slogans, in the full knowledge that the tasks cannot be fulfilled and the aims cannot be achieved. The ruled have this knowledge too, yet they accept the tasks and the aims and neither the rulers nor the ruled show any desire to refuse to cooperate in the endless spectacle."

Erofeev's Benny is not a positive hero. He cannot change events and events do not seem to change him. They simply carry him along, Station to Station[^1], just as the train carries him from Moscow to Moscow.

Little is known of the relationship between Erofeev, the author, and Erofeev, the hero of Moscow Circles apart from two anecdotes, the first contributed by Mikhail Burdzhelian, the second by Nikolay Bokov.

"I invited Erofeev to a party in Moscow. He turned up in the company of a short man, ill-dressed, who introduced himself as 'the hero of Erofeev's Moscow Circles'. Throughout the evening Erofeev sat silent, while his 'hero' became ever more voluble. At the end of the evening, they left, Erofeev still silence and sober, his 'hero' noisy and drunk."

"The editors of the Moscow Samizdat journal, Veche, invited Erofeev to contribute an essay on the philosopher Rozanov. Erofeev agreed, but failed to produce anything. Finally the despairing editors locked Erofeev up in a Moscow flat with the works of Rozanov all at his side and left him there, denying him al access to alcohol until he had finished."

These stories tell us little about Erofeev, the man, but they are a fine illustration of the way in which Moscow Circles draws on anecdote, and anecdote draws on Moscow Circles.

Translation is never easy, and the translation of work that relies heavily on allusion to a common culture is particularly difficult. When Benny remembers a conversation with his co-leader in the Petushki Revolution (aimed at liberating alcohol for the people), he ends his outline of action with the words: 'And then we'll have another drink and study, study, study." To a Russian reader, the last words will be an immediate reminder of Lenin's dictum, which graces the walls of every Soviet educational institution. I hope that the notes provided in this program will help the English audience member enjoy this work as much as I have enjoyed translating it.

H. R. Hughes
Brunswick, 2017

[^1]: Three years after the publication of Moscow Circles in Israel in 1973, RCA Records releases David Bowie's 10th studio album Station to Station, which the artist describes "a plea to come back to Europe for me" — this despite his not being able to recall the recording sessions due to the amount of drugs he was on throughout this period.

Slave Pianos, *Dissident Consonances*, Programme Menu

022-006

Slave Pianos, *Dissident Consonances*, Programme Menu

Menu

POTATOE AND FLOUR EVENT
from FLUXFEST (1973)
vodka pipeline organ, vodka jelly, pancakes, dancer, actor, devices

Three Types of Pancakes

  1. Zemaitiski Blynai (Lowlander Pancakes with Cream & Bacon Sauce) $7/$5

  2. Blueberry Crêpes with Blueberry Sauce and Cream $5/$3

  3. Crêpes suzette (Crêpes with orange & grand marnier & butter sauce) $5/$3 Vodka Jelly

Organ Roll Barrels

  1. Zefiro Torna
  2. Gerkit, Gerkit, Broliukai

Connexus.do I Need Midi to Play Piano Music

Source: https://slavepianos.org/?category=programme

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