Performance Documentation
Many years ago, my old friend and collaborative partner David London said that he considers every performance to be an offering—to the audience, to the world, to oneself, to all of those. I took this to heart, making it part of the root of my own performance practice. Interpreting the category “performance” expansively, I have increasingly been broadening my poetics delivery modes into areas of silent performance, overlapping with practices like site visits and site-specific installation. Bringing my body into direct relation with place and object, especially through movement in and engagement of ecosystems and human-impacted species/settings, I am better able to unify the effects of my work through poetic interventions that go beyond the traditional poetry reading. Though there may be no human audience for these performances at the time of their enactment, the goal is to leave traces—perceptible or not—of the poem and/or the poet for other beings (birds, insects) or for processes (weathering, molecular dispersal). If I can prompt less human-centric answers to the question, “Who is poetry for?”, I am satisfied.
POEM WALKS
SITE VISITS
SITE INTERVENTION 1
SITE INTERVENTION 2
OLDER AND MISCELLANEOUS PERFORMANCES
Absinthe & Zygote: “Talking Back” (Chicago, October 11, 2014)
During the 2010s I participated frequently in the Absinthe & Zygote performance series, organized by Alix Anne Shaw and Toby Altman. Here I present materials related to “Talking Back,” an event guest-co-curated by Ira Murfin, engaging the talk performances of David Antin. Various means were used to document and reflect on the event, which blurred the lines between audience and performer in a way I have always found enriching and important. Here are some texts, images and audio elements to partially record and evoke the event. My own words, from the transcript and audio, involve engagement with the phrase “the noise of time.” These center on my correspondence with Peter Galvin, better known as Frostpaw, “The Polar Bear of Wall Street” during the Occupy movement, who was a feature in a poem cycle of mine. The audio clip is more involved. (Do not be alarmed: this performance event took place before my voice changed, and the audio reflects this.)
“Talking Back” Transcription 1
Good evening.
Good evening. Welcome to Absinthe and Zygote #19 Talking Back
Tonight’s performance is going to be a response to the work of David Antin.
Absinthe and Zygote is a semi-regular series
Poetry readings
Improvised
Involving 10 performers at once
Ira Murfin who co-curated tonight’s event
Talking about David Antin
And then we’ll proceed to talk about
A few short rules
Thank you to everybody
Perform and transcribe.
Without knowing that you were going to that
David Antin, who is the inspiration behind this event,
David Antin is a performer, critic,
Prprimary practice is a talk-based poetic.
He emerged in the experimental poetry scene in the lower east side in the 1960s
California, where he took a job as an art professor
He and his wife Eleanor Antin
Moved to San Diego
Began his practice of talk poetry
Gets asked to speak somewhere usually in an institutional setting
Arrives without a prepared talk
An idea
Related to the setting or the location in which he’s performing
Speaks extemporaneously
Recorded on an audio tape
Edited by Antin, eventually published and circulate in art journals, poetry journals and four or five book-length collections
Circulate as text
These talk poems in their text form employ idiosyncratic typographic layout
Written in this word document on the wall
Resembles neither
He actually for the most part doesn’t use any capitalization or punctuation
Patterns of speech in performance, grouping phrasing
Reject pushback against the conventions of print
Seem to be and in large part are documents of his talks
Trying to adhere closely to what happened in time space
Antin rewrites employing this same format
Process of revision
Represents speech on the page that never in fact happened in the space
Antin emerged in a context in New York on the Lower East Side that had this performance consciousness
Charles Olsen
Bop prosody
Jackson Mac Low
Choral participatory poetry
Jerome Rothenberg
Umbra magazine
Vernacular speech on the page
Black Arts Movement
Concern with morality, speech, talk as moment
Pushes category by making oral performance generative source rather than realization
Text that looks like speech
Speaks things that end up as text
Paradoxically, Antin’s work, very relatable, very personal goes through a linear thought proces. In some ways, his approach to composing poetry is more experimental, but the poetry is more acecssible or more understandable to somebody who happens upon it.
So after Toby had encountered some of the writing that I’ve been doing about Antin,
Co-curating this event with Alix and himself
Antin’s process and performance technique engaging this talk format
Thinking about the material conditions surrounding Antin that allow him to do this work white man with reputation and institutional support
Contemporary art world
Academic
Monologic delivery
Edited texts appear – any other activity, sound, interaction is filtered out, unless Antin hails it in his talk piece
Reduces down to one figure
Devised this format that we thought might celebrate the qualities of Antin’s poetics and expand its possible applications
Diversify numbers and types of speakers
Everyone can see what everyone is doing
Also we’re including the entextualiztion process
including transcription
Sound recorders around the space
Record sound yourself
Subjectively representing talk as text
Into the event itself
Just like the talk poems, can only be partial documents of what happens
Particular place in this room heard at a particular moment
Single document
Digital chapbook
Extend this event
These 10 brave poet performers who’ve signed up
We’ve randomly assigned them each a title taken from an Antin talk poem
It could go anywhere at all
Explain the structure
This performance is a corrective to Antin – one white guy who stands up and talks about his ideas
Invite audience to join in performance
Interact with performers, take over and perform, you’re welcome to do that. A performer might ask you to participate. You’re free to decline or accept
CAN’T SILENCE ANYONE ELSE
We encourage folks to move around the space
Multiple forms of documentation
We’d like to have two people volunteer for these two stations
Write what they hear
Documentation of this performance will be incorporated into some
Emmy Bean,
Accocplaksdn /asldkfj sldfk asodfh sPDkf as;ldkf lsdfkjsdlfj s;lkdf s
F s’dlkf lksjf aljskdf; s
Toby, did you want to talk a little bit about rules?
If you want to transcribe, feel free to come up and tag somebody out?
Does anyone want to volunteer to start?
Sure.
All right. And we are encouraging you to get up and move around the space, go from performer to performer, listen and speak.
So
Hi.
What am I doing here? Is the topic that I was given and a question that I was asking myself all week in anticipation of being here
That’s really a challenge
What do we do with time that’s lower
Hey, if anybody wants to talk about
Many opportunities
Kinds of keep going. And I would
Keep
Phone or Twitter, Facebook
Self. Invent any facts you’d like
Does that mean how did I get here as a human being, how did I come to be? Or how did I
I keep a regular Twitter, I think online
Let me waste your time a little bit, shall we?
Audience
Perform
Writers, we often perform our work, but we write it down first.
Beer, would you like one?
When you ask to stand up and you talk about what you’re thinking. That’s something that you do really regularly. All the time. And you’re actually asked to do that, it adds this level of anxiety that I’ve been – thank you for asking.
Now that I’m here in a different space,
Not even
Wandering into this space where here I am
The text and after the
These correspondingly invent a question
What does it mean to be on to somebody who’s also on to yoU?
How can that be possible with time? My personal time and that’s the coolest thing about whales, because they might exist in a completely different way.
Their own personal sense of time is off They’re
Wawhales. But then they’re slows you down when you try to move at a regular pace through water
It’s harder to be in the future in water
Than it is to move
I’m sorry that we got here too early.
As
Here
Brain
Yes
Eyesight
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I mean, that’s like –
Been
Oh good.
I
Bye.
Well, I feel really – I would like to have a
Shout it
Grass.
Hahahah
Fact trees is
Heheheh
Okay, so I think the abstract of the question is
I have like stood out anyway I know that is the thing
Lose in for a white
Trollbit
When I Maybe nor did major trees owls and is a concern. It is a concern. I’ve been telling people I have somedays
Maybe
Are you allowed to be talked to when you’re transcribing?
I like
I never would have thought of doing that
Am I supposed to ask you a question?
That’s your question, I guess. You may. This was recycled from another performance. I was asked to be an instigator. It’s the lazy woman’s performance gesture.
That’s so true.
It’s so nice to show up and be told what to do.
My friend had a talk where she wanted to hear feedback about her book. And I did this while we all talked. And I loved it.
I forget about your wonderful typing skills.
I had a dream that I was skydiving with the clowns.
It was great.
That’s so good.
That’s like something we would all do. And they were kinda juggling in the air.
I’m going in January.
And Dave is coming.
I’m going to Cuba in December.
Oy. What do you do for that?
You get sick and it hurts and you get over it. It’s not Ebola, so I guess it’s okay.
It’s like hyper-reality. Thinking and doing at the same time. A little bit. It’s interesting because it replicates the process in my head where I’m typing in my head sometimes.
I like it. But it’s physically hard.
There should definitely be more performances where I just get to drink beer and talk and hang out with my friends.
So I think I’ve got this poetry thing all wrong.
From here on out. Last night I went to U Chicago to see Clare Coolidge. So clark is a collaborator of Bernadette’s and a good friend of hers. He does a lot of stream of consciousness poetry, but he’s doing a lot of list poems. Santa Claus should stop giving away things for free.
Your’e kind of vetted. We started chatting and shooting the shit. All pretense went down. OH, you’re one of Bernadette’s collaborators.
What did you tihnk of the list poem? I didn’t know that’s what you do.
I think I’m just trying to figure out the list poems, I just keep writing them.
I was thinking he’s probably gotta be in his mid-sixties.
I’m trying to figure something out.
It made me feel really good. I’m in the right field. Look at the longevity. I only heard a little.
I think she. Toby with a y. Which confused me.
He asked me about endangered nouns.
Capitalism?
Old words that might die.
Like
Howdy Doody
That’s not a noun
Old-timey
What’s something we don’t – calculator. Calculator. I think it’s kind of endangered.
Or what’s another tool math tool, abacus. Abacus.
Hahahahaha
I don’t think
To teach children.
Hi Jeff.
Well, now I’m stymied.
One of you sits here. I’m going to lock the door.
Performative. Focused in your body. Performance to emphasize the use of
With one other person
With two person
It was good up man
No one authorized it
And uh
How do you teach
The history
Of
I always find
They never tried
That before
Everything always sent to prison
Hated and moved to china
(laughter)
i got stuck by a chord
move around some more
shoes off
or take shoes off
i ended up
any motion
for three more minutes
in tucson i was in traffic
business
BUSINESS
What was that thing again?
It was fun
It was fantastic
Oh no no no no
The answer it was
I could definitely do
Yes
The performer it was about
The name of the store
Was writing about
It’s a really real procedure
I don’t know
Only forty
Language in better ways
So
Is anyone
Me neither
Think in
Listen people
Ask a question
Yeah no i
Mean
Rosemary
I’d say it’s hygenic
The first part was necessary
I force my students were grading it
So the original was like this
Actually in front of it
Modesto
Taking the house
Two girls
A decade later
Under a mountain
My sister grew a seed
You have to understand some linguistics
My sister went sailing
Can i do something without comment?
Made out of
Made out of
Words that
Happen
OK
Do you know what flavor
By a chair
The original right place
Every single move
Someone Loses
You have to admit what was the best
They were teaching something
Watching policy breakdown
Challenge to cut off
These things
Among strangers So um my topic is is this the right place
So uh you take me to the right place by my outfit What is the right place it’s ok so so um objective you um mirror report toby gave it and sometimes i’m assured i’m in place next season i died i knew all the secrets coming out with honors they rolled it’s happened to me twice in front of me mystic knowledge total bunk but it was good too i hope that i did rememeber that i did dream going back to
Experiencing death as a life curse
Direcct experience
Obliquely
Context of that
Putrescence of casseroles
Feel its inevitability
We still feel it
Feel it
Oh no~ I’m gonna move around a little bit
UUUUM I can type I can not GO BACK
No she’s in the chair there I don’t even know anybody I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know Gotta love this It’s actually saying
He has a ha ha It’s good I really enjoy it. Yeah it’s good it’s a vacation but other than that Yeah Playing with my days off and then Warms I Ordered Landlines!
OHH. I’m gonna do a really famous one. It would be so great to get a
Has been directing by
And she just started BAWLING Umm was this the right place for it? OK hi. Nice to meet you I need a drink Was her teacher involved in this? Ever since and then when I was in Canada Cars all in this It’s like a little box Yeah sooo I did. Reall nice walking to the ktichen. Find a way to talk to the kitchen So my hands in this little like Craters like an army hole Pain And you like aaaah so like she’s So they have on e of those What does it mean? I never I never went back I I’m too I like your test card I know it’s exciting. Right I know I remember I love the smell of matches NO no Yeah Hey Oh hyeah Why aren’t you ewritiing down what I’m saying right now. I’m just like knid of like curious about peoiple’s reactions to people’s observations about what is going on right now. OI’m assuming that peopleare talking about what people were ecxpecting to talk about tand then people were talking about project runway and that was like an awesome 20 minutes therear you hearing what other poeplearte saying right now or am I block ing what other poepler are saying I don’t hear any words. I don’t hear words. I mean I seee people taklminga I can kind of hear what peopelr are sayingb ut what does talking sound like when you can’t hear the wordS?
Put me in the right space the right place Occasionally involved with feelings Please this is performance art She was like like I alwauy like Like And then she texts like I mean like You have to The numbers of my childhood friensds because those are the numbers that I used I’m the jerk
How many people have asked why they have so many creamers?
Do I make people stand by you? No, but yo ucould make people. I never thought of that. I was transcribing over therea and there were times that were very hard to hear but it seems like you’re getting a lot of material. AHHHHHH I’m gonna make like
What’s that? (shadow puppets)
IT’s only boring as a like thing. It’s not really boring Like the last the last Hey, NO explanation necessary that’s a little breepy. Well I asked him in the car. I opened that chips I don’trecycle shit man This man is cold! This man doesn’t rcycle anything Yeah yeah take care Something like sort of like GAA Something like this AHHH Everybody’s reycling now but I bet they don’t the recycling plant. Hey Mike
Thank you guys all for coming and
Not all what we expected
You nned my name or like Um well I believe that dance and potery are similar to each other both of them are an expression of or an interpretation of epression you’re tlkaing you’re writing words and through dance you’re interpreting what you feel you’re expressing what inside of you They are both deep expressions. I had to take the poem and internalize it as if I was dancing and that’ how I was able to understand what the poem meant and what the poet was feeling when they wrote it
“Talking Back” Transcription 2
Welcome to Absinthe & Zygote : Talking Back
tonight's performance is a response and experiment,
inspired by the work of David Antin
so of course i go t what it means to be avant garede
but of course the crazy thing about being avant gard avant
your gard
so i can't forget the facts there
what do we do with time that's below our feet I 'd like to tell a story
time in this place k the noise of time trying very ahrd to be in this moment here
umh umh kall right now so apart of them is constantly
reaching forward this time this pretty soon this starts to loop back on me
but i'm putting those words under my feet to really effect to be ahead of onself
when we were coming here I was early i was worried worried about being
too late what haflf an hour a goo dmodel of democracy
and th didffeernce matter and then and then I can't tell
no
david antin
laying down the history what im thinking isn't; valuable and also
what do i add TO the present moment
antine antin actual narrative reconcile you know what you know what
since i was eleven year old i have been to somewher ebetween twenty scientists happy
and talk about what death is what isn't
abstract
way ahead or way behind
of it's time
i think your familiar with
pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
and then the time of performance dust
time time time traces of evenings
would you be willing to make a record fo my story great
what do i do
you're doing it right
do you know about david antin le tme see
and no wi'm encoutering everybody times i feel like i need to extrapolate upon the invention
of factory art
i don't feel very poetic right now
i feel like i am writing an essay baout the invention of fact
the invention of fact oproblem came from my mother my mother invented the fact
or fiction or is it a fact it depends i don't whether my mother would have
invented a fact... What do you do to invent a fact? something that is upported by details?
details details details after a fact is supported by another detail tahn you can call it fact
except the people on the other side of the room
might think we invetned it do i speak normally about inventing the dfacts
a friend of mine maybe there are no facts maybe their just opinionsj i agree hehehehe
together in fact
triangle what are you doing that's very cultural
these days
hahahahahahahahahahah
so in college
somehow
kind of there always are it's har dto say
they make money making these greetings!
angrier if that makes sense
i want everybody to talk louder
grandmas ah i'm going to find a way to do
i always knew whatever that was
it's impossible to hear you
our time is constantly overlapping with each other
reality tiny little train clouds maybe it is
maybe they have a hard time
i'm going to come and speak directly right here
just speak so adam can hear that is a challenge
but interesting enough because i am extemporizing about he noise of time i believe this is actually quite agood place for me to be situated which i believe is a cheap ass pun
and i claim ir for myself and in the interest of transribing
let's see earler i was talking about trespassing in former brownfield areas
and part of what i was doing there was sort of temporal changed
and the artificial processes of enclosure which unintentionally created nature preserves for animal which we ouwwld never expext to see in an urban area and peter galvin
the guy in the polar bear suit contacted me the other days a little bit
of temporal noise that interjected itself in this that's actually funny
i didn't really expect that that's really cool
i think that's really what poetry is it interjected itself
my poems definitelly do make noise
the life of a poet the actual work is about being about being disturbed by that noise
the noise of the poem that collects itself around you or comes from within
if you'r like me an dd ===use about quirky little techniques that connect things together
find
i mean found poetry is its own thing and of course noise poetry is it's own thing too
which i'm less consious of
and actually its a cliche and a you can t see my finger quotes you can't i'm doing these
dumb finger quotes
CAn i ask you a qwuestion abotu the noise of time and it's relationship to bravery?
as a performer at this moment what's interesting is that i didn't feel an fear or nervousness going
into this, because i feel liek that's where i live i live in the noise of time and as a performer and as a poet that's where my poetry lives that's huh that' sa fascinating question
so like the bravery that i have to manifesdt
that's a really interesting question
a part of what youre saying related to the way you talk about noise because i was really taken with the polar bear poem bevause its really brave to be in a polar bear suit
so i was thinking about bears and also about bravery and also what its relation is to noise because it takes a certain amount of bravery to make noise
human encroachment that's a whole other kind of noise
he died alone in his house and his funeral was
i think i'll get another beer
enjoy the noise
at this funeral
haha
the pastor at the funeral home was saying something
he was always saying something
he said when he first met my uncle he went up to him and said glasses
it was a very strange feeling
it was like a funeral for elderlyness again
but i think that was only because of the way he lived his life
all the time not just sometimes
when i was a little kid my sister and i
it was a conundrum
that was something about life that I remember
he talked about how it he wasn't a good father in law
his son hated him
and he was a bad man
i'm really enjoying it i hope that's okay
and after I tried to change the paragraph
i just need to remember not to spill things on myself
so many of my workshirts i've just coughed on
i did i did
this is a house for snow men
my nose itches
it could be any kind of it could just be
listen if I want to have sex with someone
but love is love
can you spread this message
i'm going to sell underwear
well it's in the brunch
i gotcha
it's a cute song
but it's totally not as serious as it sounds
will you repeat in my ears
what i say in your ears
death is only death
but love is love
please spead this message
in my mind as a child
is this going well i can't tell
i think so
the major question is where I start
she starts skipping school and doing drugs
she disappeared for weeks
one time her guidance counselr stopped her
i m going to talk to you about your outstanding absences
she said they are pretty outstanding aren't they
she finally dropped out of high school
how's it going over here in the transcription station
have you observed how quickly it turned into a conversation
yeah i was surprised by that
i didn't expect the speakers to give up the effort to speak continuously
the way everybody interpreted this was to keep talking
but its actually very different because you're not on stage
it does turn everyone else into david antin's
when you speak you have to keep speaking
people had this inclination to help
you're bravely talking and you need an audience
i'm glad you set up the transcription machines
that was inspired by the next objectivists
which was inspired by antin
i feel like it's going to calm back down and it will become a collective improv
it's like two circles and the rest are basically cocktail party groups
if it's true what you say, that silence reemerges that could be really interesting
that could be a project for the two of you, to encourage silence to reemerge
i guess ira's really into antin
ya he's writing a dissertation on antin, but specifically his transcription practice
this is also a very doctored transcription but it's doctored because of the conditions of performance
here's our plan
we're going to encourage people to start sitting back down and become the audience again
what do you think about that
i've already given my card up
so you're done
i'm out of it
but i've transformed into an audience member
i could transcribe actually
actually i'd be curious how that works
how long has this been going on
at least a half hour
wanna break
sure
elimination as a process where theyre about to eliminate something
make us decide
attitudes
i'm better than anybody else
why am i in this position
shes' actually saying this
an then eveyone else is saying it
just the
as i did, but
what did people do to check it
angry about anything that's happening
why didn't the other women have a right to their anger
you can't kind of contain your sadness, your anger
no matter what happens, we're supposed to be able to
emotions constantly, acting well all the time
we sll kind of like
sure
*laughter*
i've been talking a lot today, so i think i'm more into listening
sure
so i still haven't gotten to the end of the story which is that this woman
and she did it with such grace
she won, she was so happy
as soon as she got backstage she just broke down
"that was horrible!"
it was so unexpected
she did everything right
and then she just had this like really traumatic...and being backstage is still recorded!
i guess it makes you think about how many
louder laugh
so both of them had these kind of like immense breakdowns
it's not like you really wanna win or lose
one thing i'm sure of
cyborg!
8
noise of windows opening
i like the idea that
that's actually why
i feel like
a very scary thing but how the worst part about it is that i'm aftraig well make us more scared of each other
one of those things that kind of just reflects
you know what i mean its kind of like
you get to be so glamorous, you get to be on top even if just for a momet
it's true!
no, no! ha ha
heyyyyyy
it's meant to be...
the full giraffe form...
the fallen giraffe...all like
just like the meaning of it
memory, to be
chocolate!
so the original right place for this would have been hidden valley camp-
okay so the colors of the technicolor dreamcoat are
and silver and lemon and russet and ochre and grey
is this the right place
so um the in the right place
orientation
i think over there
or sit in, yeah
okay
so my feelings about
are really
i'm very
i think there's actually
nothing true
i like it
and goood
man gmc
ohhhh
insane story line
the whole crew
offends my very establishment
that in case
shy cells
showing up suspensful
i would imagine it
i love
nothing serious
that why don't we just have a conversation
my ears i heard
news alright let me help you out
yes that's it
what's with that
it's really hard to hear english
in this cacopahny isn't it
it's a skill
nice to meet you
hey guys
hahahahahah
hey guys
in and out
woooo such
a sad puppy dog
i feel like i need to duck to get out
what i hear in your ears
talking back to talking back
jay besemer
finally played back my recording from the “talking back” performance almost a week afterwards i found it was much more legible than i expected the recording as well as the event i guess so i don’t have a full sense of the experience yet like a summary analysis interpretation still hard to put it together in memory even the recording helped as i heard the audio i was reminded of the sequence of speech-acts i made the sequence of space-time coordinates i occupied x y z coordinates the interruption of my narrative so called into others’ the way i kind of invaded adrienne’s sorry i feel sheepish about that and the little sort of sparring theory-head thing with gene we have always done that well toward the end i was so tired i surrendered much more to the audience stopped being the wandering declaimer became i wonder what tristan tzara would have done with this performance i became more of a mote milling about trying to absorb and learn learn isn’t quite right not wrong either
i didn’t know what to expect beforehand i sort of minimally prepared by making a sheet of favorite phrases plucked from antin’s performance of the same name as my topic i had thought to carry it with me and refer to it as a sort of prompt if i got stuck didn’t do that at all of course i know enough by now about my public performance shtick to know that i never stick to the script such as it is i had no particular goals except to show up and respond to what was around me and not blow out my voice if possible well i say show up and respond but it turned out i seemed more comfortable shrugging into the jacket of authority antin-style not so much what i expected to do as maybe what i felt was expected of me
by whom though still so poisoned by teaching college
the audience was so keen i was delighted
one of my favorite and most vulnerable moments was the period of time i spent flat on my back performing on the floor for a cluster of young people the cluster expanded as i spoke i remember feeling like they were all about to make love to me or perform surgery that kind of belly-up surrender and how absurdly i continued talking with my hands as i always do couldn’t see my own hands really just lying on my back flapping my hands for emphasis like a sea lion my half-gloves for arthritis i think i was more solicitous of audience input from the floor because the vulnerable position made it hard for me to i guess hard to push i had to request invite i think a lot of them felt more comfortable approaching me afterwards one guy from that group came to relieve me after i’d stopped performing and switched to transcribing
i knew the experience would be very physical for me everything is these days i was surprised to hear in one part of the recording early on that i seemed to be panting or shaking don’t remember feeling that or doing that catching my breath like that the idea that a performance can be physically challenging even if it isn’t dance or endurance-focused or athletic in the usual sense i ended with a fragmentary breakdown of language in the presence of a great discussion about mathematical concepts maxwell’s discussion of sizes of infinity how beautiful that my verbal language dissolved and the different language of mathematics was there to rest on
i loved the whole thing
it’s just the kind of experience i live on
THANK YOU
“The Sexual Practices of Popular Diacritical Marks”
In 2015 I performed a satirical piece in the form of a PowerPoint presentation summing up a fake research project purportedly combining linguistics with outdated anthropological research methods. This was part of the Meekling Press “Talks” series, in which participants gave short lectures on absurd or fictional topics—or in my case, absurdly fictional. I do not think there was a recording made of my talk, but I have converted the slides into a short video. Below the video I have a gallery of images of pages from my performance score, clarifying the slide content and my actions in performance. The physical (film) slides alluded to are not available.
VARIOUS PERFORMANCE TEXTS
Another part of my practice involves the creation of texts for performance. I have been interested in and a proponent of “poets theatre”—in any of its many iterations and interpretations—and have made many texts for that practice. Some have been published, giving them a public life whether or not they are actually performed (or performable). Other kinds of texts are perhaps better thought of as scores or recipes.
Below are some image versions of pieces I contributed to the performance journal Nerve Lantern, now no longer publishing. The first gallery presents a pair of very different performance texts and an account of a performance I gave at another Absinthe & Zygote event. The second gallery presents a number of short “event” scores published in “Dear Yoko”, a Yoko Ono tribute issue of Nerve Lantern, which I co-curated in 2016 with Joel Allegretti.
