Sent: Mail-Art Performance Score to Jim Leftwich's Marginal Arts Festival (Roanoke, Virginia, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

December 12, 2010 - IUOMA members Cheryl Penn, Erni Baer, and I collaborated on this performance score - "Perforated Bark" - which has been submitted to the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival to be held in the USA in March of 2011. This excellent event is organized by visual poet Jim Leftwich who is an IUOMA member (and inventor of the term "trashpo" that I so frequently misuse). Since his mail-art call was posted here at the IUOMA, I thought it would be alright to paste it into this blog because it includes some interesting information including a passage by John Cage. You can learn more about it below.

 

I wanted to provide a bit of documentation about the genesis of "Perforated Bark." A few weeks ago, Cheryl posted the picture of the street sign at IUOMA (don't know her original intent). The sign is the FOUNDation for "Perforated Bark." I was posting my blog early one morning, and I looked at this sign from Durban SA closely. I left a comment saying the sign seemed like the kind of thing from which performance scores are made. The line "Treat installations as alive" in particular held possibilities. However, I wasn't sure where to take it from there. Erni then added a comment applying his dharmadada aesthetics - something about living sculptures. This was the needed concept. All three of us agreed to be collaborators. I put the scorecard together (above), and mailed it to Virgina. Here is the mail-art call:

 

FORMAT: Free

TECHNIQUE: Free

SIZE: Free

PARTICIPATION: Open to all

TERMS: No jury, no returns

EXHIBITION: March 3 - 8, 2011, during the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival. Also a good chance of some of the scores being performed during the festival. Partial exhibits likely at Collab Fests in the weeks and months following the festival.

 

DOCUMENTATION: Photographic documentation online, in the textimagepoetry flickr sets and on the blogzine, textimagepoem. Some video also likely.

 

DEADLINE: February 28, 2011

 

 

Send To:

Jim Leftwich

525 10th St. S.W.

Roanoke, VA 24016 USA

 

 

an excerpt from:

Composition in Retrospect

by John Cage

EACH ACTIVITY IS CENTERED IN ITSELF, I.E., COMPOSITION, PERFORMANCE, AND LISTENING ARE DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES.

A WORK SHOULD INCLUDE ITS ENVIRONMENT, IS ALWAYS EXPERIMENTAL (UNKNOWN IN ADVANCE).

NO BEGINNING, MIDDLE, OR END (PROCESS, NOT OBJECT).

UNIMPEDEDNESS AND INTERPENETRATION; NO CAUSE AND EFFECT.

ANYTHING CAN FOLLOW ANYTHING ELSE (PROVIDING NOTHING IS TAKEN AS THE BASIS).

INFLUENCE DERIVES FROM ONES OWN WORK (NOT FROM OUTSIDE IT).

ACTIVITY, NOT COMMUNICATION.

THE PRACTICALITY OF CHANGING SOCIETY DERIVES FROM THE POSSIBILITY OF CHANGING THE MIND.

http://www.jimleftwichtextimagepoem.blogspot.com/

 

 

[De Villo Sloan]

I didn't lose it for a minute. The real FOUNDATION of "Perforated Bark" hinges on the words "live" and "alive." Or am I barking up the wrong tree? No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low. Back to SELF-ABSORPTION Ltd. for us.

[cheryl penn]

I'm at the bottom of the world remember?? You know - I'm thinking everyone lost my plot on this one.  O the downfalls of the cryptic.

[De Villo Sloan]

Haven't you heard of the great custom in the US called "Spring Break"? Here's another amendment to the score you made: Somehow the sound of a dog barking seems to be part of this for you. Maybe there is an audio component. Should I add another notation on draft#2: "What is the sound of one dog barking?"

[cheryl penn]

Bark.  Got lots of time on your hands De Villo? So you might get to see the alive performance? Lucky you.

[De Villo Sloan]

Erni, I could possibly send a few different drafts of the score to Jim Leftwich. It might be more interesting if he had several and perhaps contradictory versions. Cheryl, last year's festival was very well documented; so we can watch to see what happens. Who knows, by March maybe I'll go down to Virginia to see the festival, as it looks very interesting. Thanks to both of you for doing this.

[cheryl penn]

I WISH I could see the performance alive.