Sketch for Performance

Frederic Jameson granted me permission last year for this series of works using his text from the seminal document Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, New Left Review, 1984.

Sketch for Performance/Jasemon began in January 2009 as a Keynote presentation called Jasemon, of Jamesonʼs text with my improvised jazz piano, playing Miles Davisʼ So What, and the addition of a synthesized voice saying "post- modernism, modernism, modernism, modernism." In January 2010 it was re-edited with a different soundtrack — Mickey Mouse, Karnival Kid, 1929, which is the precise length of the entire piece and is one continuous element over animated text from Jamesonʼs essay which loops 3 times.
 The text, set in Trajan — a font taken from rubbings of Trajanʼs Column and representing an ultimate form of typographic classicism — begins legibly at first and then becomes distorted. The third and final rendition of the repeating text zooms out to the ending blip of a Looney Tunes movie as postmodernism disappears and I demonstrate the changing meanings of different synchronicities of text and sound.


In the opening scene the title Fredric Jameson Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1984 appears with the Looney Tunes fanfare (a comic though real suggestion of significance). The initial screens which present Jamesonʼs well-accepted argument play over an opening sigh followed by the hushing sound associated with the announcement of important remarks in a speech or an opening at the Opera. Rising tension is maintained by the sound of a needle crackling on a scratched LP or 78 disk. A brief explosion after the appearance of "premonitions of the future", another hush at "catastrophic or redemptive" and "the end of this or that" is followed by a dog bark suggesting happy agreement with the premise, a creaky spring, a munching sound and a whistle introduce "post," followed by "modernism" which fades to a strumming guitar and the beginning of the love song Sweet Adeline which introduces the second playing of the animation.

The songʼs lyrics are converted into approximations of words as they become forgotten by the singers. When "catastrophic or redemptive" appears for the second time it begins with a whistle and cork-pop (a celebration?). The forgotten lyrics continue briefly until at "the end of this or that" we hear a snore and whistle, suggesting either that weʼve heard this before and itʼs boring now, or that "the end" also involves the act of falling or dying temporarily. The next two screens deal with the accidental synchronicity of text and sound — first "taken together" and "all of these perhaps constitute what is increasingly called" occur in perfect unison with two sharp sounds — as they build tension towards the final statement, "post" followed by "modernism" the disappearance of which perfectly segues with the ending of a line of sung text.

The next and final rendition of the text has already begun out of sequence, as the music begins to speed- and cheer- up to a rousing finish, and the animated image immediately begins to zoom out becoming smaller and smaller and ultimately disappearing in reference to a shrinking spotlight — as the word "modernism" now a fraction of its former size — vanishes forever and the piece ends.

Excerpt from the interview in Neshan Magazine. Face-to-Face: Robert Appleton
Interview by Majid Abbasi, Toronto, Canada, 2011.

MA: If Vortex is a language, what is it's grammar? And what are the relationships between sound text and image?

RA: In conventional grammar, adjectives modify nouns. With the statement "I ate an enormous lunch" 'lunch' is a noun, and 'enormous' is an adjective that modifies it. The adjective tells us what kind of lunch the person ate. In Vortex grammar an adjective can be a visual, aural or textual segment (not necessarily a word or a single word), as can a noun or any other part of speech (Sketch for Performance/Jasemon, 2009-10 should be viewed here at the same time as you are reading this). In the opening scene the text "Fredric Jameson Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1984" appears with the sound of a Looney Tunes fanfare (an ironic though real suggestion of significance). The aural (sound) influences the textual and visual (title and typography), acting as an adjective to describe the noun (the book as title and image). The aural component (or adjective) tells us that the book (the noun) is significant and ironic.

Category:

Film & Animation