Wed Mar 14, 2012
When I began work on this piece last fall - when it still seemed
like it might truly be a solo performance - I pretty much knew nothing
to begin with. (Thus the title.) I started by gathering together all of
the miscellaneous notes I'd made over the years, in little notebooks
mostly, for performance ideas that had never yet taken shape. Some of
those still seemed resonant, though few of that selection have survived
to this point. One resource that I'd never made real use of is my
handwritten copy of Eno's Oblique Strategies deck. I never had a
copy of my own, but copied a deck owned by Mario-Erik Paoli, a Mobius
Artists Group member in the 1980s, onto index cards. So why not start
with that? I shuffled the deck and picked "Decorate, decorate." OK.
I used to consult the I Ching with some regularity in the
1970s and somewhat in the 80s. Hadn't looked at that in ages either, so I
threw some old pennies. This turned up Coming to Meet, changing to
Pushing Upward. The commentary on Coming to Meet is heavily misogynist,
and to that extent it wasn't too interesting - except that it described
the return of darkness. Or Yin. Or - The UnGrand. Pushing Upward
suggested adaptation to obstacles and growing around them. (Remember
"The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it"? Or
words to that effect from the 90s.)
Mulling over these inputs, I came back to the knowledge that I am
often most inspired by the characteristics of actual spaces. (This is
analogous to being inspired more by working with others than working
alone.) I want to not just stand in a room and perform, but develop the
room itself, as far as the circumstances allow. Last August, I and
several current or recent MAG members performed John Cage's Variations VIII
at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine - the place
where it was first performed. The nutshell description of this work is
that you go to a place you're not familiar with and create a performance
based only on the resources you find there. Bring nothing. There can't
be a more site-specific approach to performance than this. (And no, we
did not repeat what Cage did.)
I like the current Mobius space on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. I
like its windows onto the street and the fact that the office and
bathroom spaces are symmetrical at the back of the room. I'm intrigued
by the fact that it's so small. So early on, I riveted to the idea that Low Concept
would develop the qualities of the space, including its view of the
street. I asked Cathy Nolan Vincevic if she would take on "Decorate,
decorate" in relation to the space, and to my delight, she agreed to do
so. Jed Speare and I will work on sounding the space. It is resonant
enough all by itself, but I want to see what happens if we also
over-amplify it. Not meaning for it to be too loud, but rather,
amplifying unneccesarily, so that every sound might be heard both in
acoustic and electronic space.
And darkness - we will perform without room lights. There will be
lots of ambient light from the street, so it won't be in blackness. But
the lighting will be what the external environment beyond the windows
provides, aside from a few task lights.
There is more to say about the likely actual content of the performance. More on that later.
Huh, and just now I discovered that you can buy the latest edition of Oblique Strategies. Think I will.
