This performance requires several telephones, preferably telephones of as many different types as possible. Ideally, each should produce a unique sound through its microphone, which can either be original to the telephone or added. The phones should be amplified, for the benefit of the audience. A mixer or an effects petal may be used to augment the sound from each phone. It might be nice to paint the telephones black and white, to recall the color of keys on a piano. The telephones need not be connected to a telephone line, although other scores for this musical instrument may desire such a feature.

A Fluxus MAchine

A Piano Made of Telephones

[ 1 or 2 performers]

There are two scripts. The first script is composed of the sort of stuff that a telemarketer would say on the telephone, like “You’re eligible to be entered into our fifty thousand dollar sweepstakes” or “How would you like to buy a subscription to TV guide?”. The second is a series of responses, like “What’s the catch?” or “I can’t talk now, I’m busy” or “he isn’t here right now. Can I take a message?”

• Pick up a telephone. Read part of the first script.
• Hang up the telephone.
• Pick up a different telephone. Read part of the second script.
• Hang up the telephone, or put one down and pick up another while the first is on “hold”.
• Repeat as desired.

A Sample Script

[A slash or a break indicates a switch from one telephone to the next]

“Hey buddy: Whatcha doin’? Are you watching television?”

“I am. I am watching television! Oh my god! How did you know?” He is excited, and so am I.

“I’ll bet you would really like to know what’s on right TV now, wouldn’t you?”

“Good evening, may I speak with Benjamin please?”

“No you may certainly not speak with him. He’s dead.”

“Hello. Is Julie there?”

“If you call this number again, I’ll cut your balls off.”

“Hello. Good Evening. How are you? Fine, thanks. Yes, you have been selected / chosen / your name has been selected and entered / you are a finalist in our ALL CASH / our Fifty-Thousand Dollar drawing / sweepstakes / sweepstakes drawing.”

    ”Fifty thousand dollars! / What’s the catch? / I am so sorry I don’t speak the English. / What’s the catch? / Uh-huh I’m listening, go on. / What’s the catch?”

“Well, let me tell you about the fabulous / wonderful / cool / various prizes. Think of what you could be doing / you could do a lot of things with all that money / with fifty thousand dollars! I’m curious, I like to ask the people I call, what would you do with it?

“The first thing I would do is pay off my credit cards / I’m in debt so I’d fix that / Student loans, you know? / What’s the catch? / I would buy a house / car / vacation / new wardrobe. / What’s the catch? / I would move out of my mother’s / father’s / husband’s house / out of this fifthly city / the country / this town. / I would spend it all / save it / invest it / give it all to Jesus / never win anyway.”

“The money sure would help. My boy, he won’t help me. He cussed me and he left me. I told him, I brought him into this world, I said, but he won’t help me.
But you’re going to have to speak up a little, my ears ain’t so good no more. I’m sorry, I’ve lost my place. What, now? I’m afraid I have forgotten why I called. Did I call you?”

“Well ma’am I am with the board of utilities. I called to check if your telephone is working properly.”

“Oh well you’re a nice boy, thank you. Yes, it seems to be working real good, or else we wouldn’t be talking.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you for your time.”

Now, I would like to invite you to the forum, where you can see the art, read what was written about it, and discuss.

About the Program

Now in its twenty-third year, the Critics’ Residency program served as a pilot program for both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. Unique in its premise, the program is a collaborative effort that works to bring a nationally-renowned critic to Baltimore each year to mentor writers while showcasing the talent of area artists.

This year’s exhibition includes the work of artists: Ken Ashton, Jessie Boyko, Dottie Campbell, Bernhard Hildebrandt, Gil Jawetz, Bonnie Kotula, Kim Manfredi, and Lynn Rybicki.

Intended to stimulate critical discourse within the region, this year-long program concludes with an exhibition of artwork selected by critic Vincent Katz during studio visits; a catalogue of critical writing by participating writers, Martin Johnson and Dylan R. Kinnett, an essay contributed by the critic; and a public forum where participants are invited to exchange ideas about contemporary art with the public.

This year’s Public Forum will take place on Saturday, May 9th at 2 pm and will be moderated by Aaron Henkin, co-creator and producer of WYPR’s radio arts program, The Signal.

A reception will follow the Public Forum at 3 pm.

Gallery visitors will receive a copy of the 23rd Annual Critics’ Residency program catalogue.

This spoken word album began as a manuscript of poems. After I had finished collecting all the poems together into one printed set, I had grown frustrated with the manuscript. Then, Curt Seiss at Magnanimous Records called and asked if I had any material for a recording. I brought my new manuscript to the recording studio, along with some very old notebooks.

In the first session, we recorded words only. Between readings, Curt left the microphone on, and captured a lot of random conversation. The original idea had been to dissect this conversation, for its miscellaneous syllables, and to use those syllables as though they were musical notes. This, of course, would have removed the sounds from the context of language. They wouldn’t be words anymore. We abandoned that idea.

In the subsequent sessions, we edited the original recordings by adding layers of other sounds to them. At first, this felt to me like “illustration”, although Curt encouraged me to think about sounds in an associative way, rather than to find literal sound effects to accompany the poem. I guess one exception to that rule was “Clouds”. With that piece, we added all the sounds of an open mic night at a bar. At the end, we added a heckler who laughs at me. It really does sound like this was a live recording!

Along the way. I discovered my favorite part of the entire process. Editing sound is very much like editing printed words. You can add, subtract, rearrange the sounds in very much the same way that you can do that with the characters on the page. With sound, though, there are some new ways to edit. You can revise the speed, pitch, volume, echo and decay of the sounds of the words themselves. It was this discovery that prompted me to title the album “Strange Punctuation”.

Now that most of the studio work is complete, the final piece of this project is coming together. I’m going to print a small chapbook to accompany the spoken word album. To illustrate the chapbook, I’m collaborating with a photographer – a lifelong acquaintance of mine, Molly Humphreys Aguilar. Again, the goal here is not to illustrate, but to associate. We had a brainstorming session last week at a coffee shop, and we discussed the thematic elements in the various pieces, and wondered what sort of imagery should accompany each one. Molly’s photo studio, Piccadilly Posh, specializes in natural light photography. Of course, most of her imagery comes from the outdoors. I can’t wait to see them.

I’ve included one of the tracks in this post. Take a listen, and please tell me what you think.

We’ve included a paper boat inside the printed publication. Assuming that all the folds are in all the right places, you should actually be able to float this boat, at the park or in your bathtub, and I hope you will. I hope you’ll first take the opportunity to unfold the boat and read Hao Cheng’s delightful story, “Paper Boats”. I also hope you’ll try to fold the boat yourself, because it’s fun!

The story “Saved” presented an interesting creative problem to the editor and designers of this issue. For a publication that is online and in print, in an issue about objects, it seemed to fit perfectly. It is a hypertext, in that it is a nonlinear composition, but it is also a collection of objects: a receipt, a printed chat log, and a newspaper clipping. We tried to present the story in that light.

“In Absentia” is intended to look like one of those old publications that you may have held in your hand at one time, the one that is a guide to the programs on TV. Anymore, those guides have been redesigned or replaced by digital listings, but this was a story about memory and about “channel-surfing” through the memories. The story has been illustrated with the typographical conventions of those channel listings, to highlight that aspect of the story.

The objects in mind here aren’t always of the paper variety. The concrete poem, “A Few Weeks of Light Principle” is one of many excellent concrete poems that have been submitted to Infinity’s Kitchen since the previous issue, which was devoted to the form. In this poem, the text is “frustrated” as one would be when trying to make sense of the instructions that often accompany the furniture that comes from the store inside a box. You have to assemble it yourself. The directions don’t always make perfect sense, in any language. The mind wanders.

You are invited to encounter these objects in any order you like and to make of them what you will.

Download the entire album, The Album That Will Never Be.

Here’s a sample song from the album. There’s More.
Download the entire album, The Album That Will Never Be.

Second Land’s first, eponymous album is scheduled for release this winter.

That’s Sunday, Jan 25th at Pyramid Atlantic. 8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring MD 20910. 6:30 P.M. Other acts include Cannot Be Stopped, and the wonderfully titled This Bag is Not a Toy.

It’s all part of a larger movement called Sonic Circuits.

The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music was initiated by the American Composers Forum (ACF) to provide DC’s music and art communities with the opportunity to sample experimental and avant-garde electronic music, with an emphasis on improvisation and artistic use of new technologies.

Now heading into its eighth year, the festival includes electroacoustic compositions, experimental jazz, noise rock, electronic drone and experimental folk, as well as live video and film programs.

Make Your Own South Park Character

Always a crowd pleaser, the little web page where you can design a south park character that looks like you, or anyone is mentioned here, under the name “make your own south park character“, which makes it easy to find, since that’s what people want to do. That is what the internet is for, after all: making south park characters.

Rough Living: An Urban Survival Manual

I posted a quick link to a book about how to survive homelessness, written from personal experience. Since then, the post has become the second most popular thing on this website. It is an interesting book. Says the author: “in 2000 I moved into my car and set out to learn what it takes to survive the day to day world of the United States without a steady income, without a home, and without most of what a lot of people think is essential to their lives. This book isn’t about how to live in public restrooms or how to steal muffins. This is a book for people that find themselves outside of what is normal in the United States and the rest of the world. This book is about surviving with much less than you think you need.”

Spoken Word, Recorded Poetry, and Hip-Hop

Three years ago, I was just starting to take some notes for what would become the spoken word album that I have just now finished producing at Magnanimous Records studio. I guess it took a while. I started by trying to get an overview of the different types of spoken word, recorded poetry, and hip-hop. It seemed to me that there are three “categories” of spoken word. Since I don’t like categories too much, I hope that my spoken word doesn’t fit too neatly into any of them. Those notes seem to be interesting to many other people.

I mentioned in that post that I wanted to list some examples of each type. I did end up collecting lots of examples of spoken word. I should share that list, shouldn’t I?

Software for Writers

There’s a maxim out there, variously attributed, which says: “serious writers should keep their work in circulation until it either sells or the ink wears off”. But it can be difficult to keep track of all those submissions, cover letters, editors, rejection slips, etc. Luckily, there are several good software applications that can help a writer to keep tabs on it all. I wrote an overview of software for writers. It’s pretty popular. (Now, I should probably eat my own dog food, so to speak, and start sending out more submissions!)

The History of and Development of Hypertext, and Hypertext Literary Theory

I’m happy to see that the first chapter of my undergraduate thesis is filling out this list of popular content on the site. I put a lot of work into it. For this chapter, I wanted to know: what is hypertext literary theory and were does it come from? If you are interested in the subject, or if you’ve never even heard of it before, this will provide you with plenty of information.