"Instruction" by George Brecht, April 1963

"Instruction" by George Brecht, April 1963

Turn on a radio. At the first sound, turn it off.

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Part of FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21: two evening performances of event scores written by Fluxus pioneer George Brecht.

More info at http://www.fluxconcert.org/20090220-21

February 20 & 21, 2009 | 8:00PM
Triskelion Arts
118 North 11th St., 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY

FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21 was a two-evening performance of historic Fluxus event scores written by Fluxus pioneer George Brecht.

The show presented more than 30 historic performance scripts over the course of two nights written by George Brecht between 1959 and 1966 - many rarely seen in the United States. Brecht introduced the concept of the event score: a performance script that is usually only a few lines long consisting of descriptions of actions to be performed rather than dialogue.

In tribute to Brechts recent passing, the evenings show breathed new life into these historic scripts ranging from early seminal pieces (Drip Music, Word Event) from his artist book Water Yam to later collaborative endeavors with Robert Filliou from their publication Games at the Cedilla.

FLUXCONCERT 20090220-21 was performed by Anthony P. Clune, Andrew Dickerson, Ryan Anthony Donaldson, Perry Garvin, Joseph Gross, Rick Herron, Ben Kerrick, Joshua Rubin, and Ethan Wagner. Organized and conducted by Perry Garvin.

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FLUXCONCERT is an instruction-based performance ensemble.

http://www.fluxconcert.org

We use texts as recipes, generating performances by following the instructions step-by-step. Here are two example works that we have performed:

A sound is made. The sound is to have a clearly-defined percussive attack and decay [such as produced by plucking strings, hitting gongs, bells, helmets or tubes]. Each performer produces his sound efficiently and almost simultaneously with other performers sounds. Each sound is produced only once. - Dick Higgins, Constellation Number 4, date unknown

Let a person talk about his/her ideal(s) - Eric Anderson, Opus 9, 1961

We link together short instruction sets like these to form a chain of interrelated pieces and a full show. While much performance can be considered instruction-based to a certain degree (through the use of scripts, stage directions, etc.), we distinguish our method by keeping the instructions as simple as possible and by presenting the instruction sets to the audience as we perform or shortly thereafter. We believe that this transparency of process and radically deskilled approach can generate unexpectedly nuanced performances from extraordinarily simple means.

We proudly acknowledge our 1960s antecedents in Fluxus and Conceptual Art and remain committed to presenting historical works from the period in addition to creating new pieces in this instruction-based mode.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• art
• performance art
• fluxus
• george brecht
• humor
• absurd
• fluxconcert