Wednesday, November 18, 2009

re G.2.20, ChinWhisps & AurLings

My thanks to Dan Godston et al for the opportunity to participate in/with David Harrison Horton's "G.2.20"--a score well suited for collab performance, even over such great distance.

That "G.2.20" works telephonically is testament to its well-tempered clavicles: just enough structure w/ a sexy, fleshy give. By employing simple point-&-flow directives & general noun types as performative units (e.g., "girlfriends," "common nouns"), limiting only as much as necessary to invite the conceptual circumstances intended, Horton's score becomes a game, a dance, a dynamo. & this dance is not a closed system (i.e., traditionally/egoistically "composed"): Horton leaves perf-unit duration, style, pitch/tone, volume undetermined, as these concerns are interpretive, performative & unnecessary in re the open scoring process. Such stylistic restrictions would, of course, also stultify telephonic collaboration, as it would require intensive rehearsal, structure, perhaps even require a conductor-of-sorts, thus excessively ossifying those sexy collarbones & threatening the necessary movements of the head & spine.

"G.2.20"'s noun categories deserve mention for their play in the ultimate scoring. While prohibiting repeated nouns, Horton balances experience-based finite categories ("names of streets on which you've lived") with the general & seemingly infinite ("common nouns") across the score & employs multiple flow-lines from each unit to create a continuous flow, even after categories have been named out of use. The piece could ostensibly continuing cycling--dropping dead categories--until all performers have exhausted experience and vocabularies.

To respond as a participant in two different realizations of "G.2.20," as initially invited, I offer the following:

Chicago (Myopic Books): I called from landline, worked w/ text prompts on paper scraps in various hats. Horton was audible, as was much audience reaction, but Kevin Kilroy was not.

Buffalo: I called from a cellphone, working w/ text prompt lists. Horton came through loud & clear but couldn't hear any of the reported audience/external interjection.

Skype leaves me hungry. Must consider further....

Huzzah to Horton for his comment re the usefulness of physical presence within the "compound of reception" as employed in the Chicago event. Certainly, such Embodiments, like Kevin Kilroy, allow the audience to relax into experiencing with ears-cum-eyes, mitigating the anxiety of engaging an open score projected into the reception compound from behind a telephonic/telematic veil. Let's call it "acousmaphoby."

By all accounts (my ears included), the Chicago realization benefited by Kilroy's Embodiment. It's unfortunate a Buffalo audience member wasn't willing to volunteer as Embodiment for that realization. [Sidebar: conferences harbor passivity-borne illnesses. Guess acousmaphoby's just another on the list....]

Kudos to Dan, David, Kevin et al.

&...yikes...Happy New Year!