Difference between revisions of "Collection of David and Rebecca Ayer"
The projects and contributions area at dekalborama.com
Gongmaster (talk | contribs) |
Gongmaster (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 96: | Line 96: | ||
<br /> | <br /> | ||
[[Ayer_Collection_0021]] | [[Ayer_Collection_0021]] | ||
<hr> | |||
{{:Ayer_Collection_0022}} | |||
<br /> | |||
[[Ayer_Collection_0022]] | |||
<hr> | <hr> | ||
Revision as of 06:58, 21 January 2012
What can I say? I'm a pack rat. These remnants are mostly from boxes and filing cabinets packed and stored serially in the garages of a string of homes and storage units for the last twenty-something years. Many are in better condition than I would have predicted, considering the means of production and non-archival nature of the materials used. At least most were easy to scan, not as much work to convert or as big as audio files....
Please do take advantage of the wiki nature of this site and feel free to edit this page. Correct errors grammatical, factual, or of omission; in many cases I have had to rely on memory to infer dates, so help there is especially appreciated. Also add sections of your own, or links to images of your better or variant copies and other related materials if you have them.
— Dave
Neoteric Ensemble
- Poster, Tales of Power
- D A Ayer
- Screen print on poster board
- 22 x 28 inches
- April 1983
- © 1983 D A Ayer and Joseph Pinzarrone
- Imagery came from photos Joe had from an earlier performance (1976 at the University of Deleware, as Joe explains). Both the maids in aprons and the bassoonist pope were hand-copied, cut out, and used as friskets over translucent vellum. Additional masking was done with rubber cement to create splatter text and the bassoon aura. The whole thing was then spray painted black to get the final image for phototransfer to a silk screen. Printing was a single impression using black and red inks together.
- This copy is still in reasonable condition almost thirty years later because we reserved a few artist's proofs for posterity. Archival materials were not used, and the quality of the printing is laughable by NIU Art Department standards, but the job came in at the right price. I recall borrowing everything except the paper and photo emulsion, maybe the black ink.
- At that point I was not a member of the ensemble, and still tend to think of this as my audition.
- Program, Ensemble Performance Series
- Joseph Pinzarrone, Tim Blickhan, et al
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1983
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- A program from 1983 lists the members of the day. Three additional pages reproduced the scored instructions for Mark Bobak's and Erik Deerly's featured works along with Margaret Atwood's Against Still Life. These are reproduced as part of Blickhan Collection 0005.
- Photo, Cathy Church Senior Recital
- Newsprint
- February 1984
- © 1984 The Daily Chronicle
- I was photographed performing in the scored demolition of an old player piano during this guest appearance of the ensemble at Cathy Church's Senior Recital. Speculation followed about the impact this photo had on the NIU School of Visual and Performing Arts' reputation and fundraising programs after concerned Daily Chronicle readers assumed we had destroyed school property. In fact, the piano had been liberated from an Illinois barn and had to be cleansed of layers of straw and bird droppings before making its final appearance.
- Hat tip to Tim for getting permission to publish from the Chronicle and for having a much better memory than I about the preparations. He also furnished a copy of the poster and provided the image of the Chronicle's follow-up clarification.
- Poster, Selling Out
- D A Ayer
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 14 inches
- April 1984
- © 1984 the artist
- Sung to the tune of Puttin' On the Ritz, Robert(O) Mendel's lyrics ushered in the ensemble's answer to an Orwellian year in which we anticipated a Presidential reelection and more misery for the state of education in America. Clearly most of us were not going to make a living in the "fine" arts, so why not go commercial at the outset?
- Despite a DeKalb tradition of sacrificing cash for culture—a contemporary student show included artworks made out of corners ripped from real US currency—and thanks to the miracle of self-service plain-paper copying, no actual dollar bills were harmed!
- Audio cassette label, DOGSWILL RAVE
- D A Ayer
- Plain paper copy on hand-cut card stock
- 7 1/2 x 4 inches
- April 1984
- © 1984 the artist
- One of the hallmarks of a sellout is merchandise available for sale in the lobby. The Indie approach of the day was to use analog cassettes since they were readily available and cheap. E X Rator had access to a high-speed dubbing deck so it was possible to make these quickly. Oddly enough I don't seem to have a copy of the actual audio tape and so I got wondering whether we ever really made any....
- Thankfully, Tim had one!
- Department roster, Ministry of Culture
- D A Ayer
- Handwritten notes
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- April 1984
1984—2012 D A Ayer
- Like the traditional Electric Pumpkin Patch, Selling Out was a distributed performance occupying as much of the NIU music building as the Ensemble could get access to and manage to "staff." One side-effect of the approach is that no one saw the entire performance, with the performers at least as in the dark as the audience. The Ministry of Culture was staffed by someone else, and in the end I'm pretty sure it had little to do with this early brainstorm based on Orwell's book.
- Got memories? Please help flesh this out!
- Invitation, Electric Pumpkin Patch
- Joseph Pinzarrone
- Mimeograph copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- October 1984
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- Saved more for its historical implications—Back Before Digital—this piece of paper reflects the painstaking nature of mid-80's authoring and copy methods. Few among us even had access to correcting typewriters, so when speed was needed, corrections were made in situ. Still legible, despite the ravages of time.
- Postcard, Neoteric Ensemble
- Rebecca Ayer
- Collage on poster board
- 6 x 4 inches
- April 1985
- © 1985 the artist
- Becky would pick up a Star or National Enquirer issue now and then just to save for collage purpose. These were one-offs she then posted around the music building the week of an event. They seemed to escape the usual enforcement of the Student Association—posters were required to have an official SA stamp—by not being posters per se.
- What was the event? Where was it happening? "Moose-lift continues" says it all.
- Poster, Mostly Field Effect Theater
- D A Ayer
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 by 11 inches
- April 1985
- © 1985 D A Ayer
- In case you were wondering what the moose-lift was all about, this informative poster cleared everything right up.
- This was the first of the pieces that evolved into the Elastic Theatre over the coming months. The idea was to create a improvisational symphony of actions chosen by the performers acting strictly alone, avoiding any pre-arranged interactions. Would "meaning" emerge?
- Note this was back in the days when the cheap way to set type was by hand using rub-on transfers. It wasn't my strongest suit but the finish quality was better than that of my silk screens.
- Program, Punto Cinco Alternative Performance Series, Virtuoso Works for Elastic Theatre
- Joseph Pinzarrone and E X Rator
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- May 1985
- © 1985 Punto Cinco/Mimesis
- This program is from the Punto Cinco event which followed MOSFET by about three weeks. This was the first use of the Light Arc photosensitive instrument interface, which we married to a computer-controlled synthesizer—I recall Betsy Start was the synth technician and performer, but don't see an acknowledgement—and renamed the Elastic Theatre. The group experimented with various approaches to this situational performance method throughout the summer.
- Poster, Virtuoso Works for Elastic Theatre
- Joseph Pinzarrone and E X Rator
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- May 1985
- © 1985 Punto Cinco/Mimesis
- This poster for the Punto Cinco Elastic Theatre performance acknowledges funding from the Illinois Arts Council. It was an off-campus event attended largely by an NIU campus crowd.
- There was a lot happening on Lincoln Highway in 1985. I may have the attributions wrong here, because sometimes the photos were taken by itinerant and not local talent. Please help me get it right!
- Program, ArtBus
- Neoteric Ensemble et al
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- This was the program handout for the ArtBus performance. It was initially intended to be handed to passengers only as they were boarding the bus. Note the ART MAY BE EVERYWHERE SERIES tagline. More contributors are credited here than we can even remember today....
- Poster, The Bus
- Neoteric Ensemble et al
- Plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- One of the more striking graphics produced in the ArtBus poster series, this example captured the obfuscatory aspect of the ArtTrain promotions found around campus—What the heck is an ArtTrain, anyway?—but managed to look sophisticated and cool in spite of it.
- Poster, The Bus
- Neoteric Ensemble et al
- Plain paper copy
- 11 x 8 1/2 inches
- November 1985
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- One of the clear aesthetic markers of the ArtBus was its lack of any unifying aesthetic. This was not some neighbor-state, DOW Chemical sponsored, traveling tax write-off but maybe some sort of grassroots transportation agency. The more random the posters appeared, the larger the force that spawned them appeared to be....
- There's no clear attribution on this one, so if the real artist would please stand up and edit this article it would be a great boon. (We think we know but we've been wrong before.)
- Poster, ArtBus is Coming
- Neoteric Ensemble et al
- Plain paper copy
- 11 x 8 1/2 inches
- November 1985
- Northern Illinois University, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- This ArtBus poster riffed on the ///ArtTrain logos which were appearing everywhere in town. The very notion of the former Michigan ArtTrain as a corporation was repellant to starving students coming to grips with 1980's employment realities.
- Again we are seeking an attribution and commentary from the original artist.
- Logistics notes for ArtBus
- D A Ayer
- Pen on paper
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © 1985 D A Ayer and the Neoteric Ensemble
- The ArtBus was a triumph of committee planning. Somehow we were able to collaborate successfully without trampling all over each others' feet, and the division of labor was organic and natural; those with interest and experience in some discipline got to do those things, didn't even have to try to avoid the others, and somehow all the bases were covered and it all worked out. A mess of notes from this exercise survive, and since most of the papers are undated they have no particular innate order. Artifacts. Ephemera. Such is ArtBus.
- Timetable study for ArtBus
- D A Ayer, Rebecca Ayer, Larry Nordstrom
- Pen and pencil on paper
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © the artists
- This is the overlay drawing based on the town street map capturing the drive time between sites on the various bus routes. Since the two buses would drive different routes to deposit and collect passengers all about town, we needed to calculate all possible drive times and then choose the segments that worked. Both buses were empty most of the time as they shuttled between locations and transported two programmatically distinct yet individually coherent audiences.
- Tour guide plan for ArtBus
- Rebecca Ayer and D A Ayer
- Pen on paper
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © the artists
- For folks not driving the buses, neither the town street map nor timetable study were particularly helpful. We needed traditional roles and blocking. Becky translated the public transportation plan into performer actions and took charge of tour guides Joel, Kurt, and Steve (Steve was reassigned when we were unable to obtain Wirtz Hall dormitory staff support).
- Timetable study for ArtBus
- D A Ayer, Rebecca Ayer, Larry Nordstrom
- Pen and pencil on paper
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © the artists
- Wetware in action! A companion drawing to the town street map and first timetable study, this documents another stage in the logistics and route planning process. It was an attempt to abstract the route segment durations away from the physical routes. We can still claim it worked, even though it could never be proven necessary.
- Bus route dry run notes for ArtBus
- D A Ayer, Rebecca Ayer, Larry Nordstrom
- Pen on paper
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © the artists
- Getting to the final route map required an empirical test of the timetable study assumptions. Our dry run came in under plan by three minutes—at 01:07:24 versus 01:10:21—and we figured that was well within tolerance for any live music event, as long as it wasn't boring.
- Route map for ArtBus
- D A Ayer, Rebecca Ayer, Larry Nordstrom
- Pen on plain paper copy
- 8 1/2 x 11 inches
- November 1985
- © the artists and DeKalb Chamber of Commerce
- This map copied from the Dekalb telephone directory was the entire route plan. Since we had two professional bus drivers—regulars on the Husky line which operated about town and the NIU campus—engaged, all we had to do was highlight some of the more obvious route choices once the locations were established. This was enough to start driving and timing the possible route segments. Either we got it right the first time, or our drivers improvised better routes in performance.
- Postcard, Neoteric Ensemble
- Rebecca Ayer
- Collage on poster board
- 6 x 4 inches
- November 1985
- © 1985 the artist
- Becky whipped it out again for the ArtBus event with a semi-random postcard or two. Though two media transformations—digital photo to JPEG followed by color adjustments in GIMP—can't quite resurrect the original DayGlo look and feel, "Mr. Travel" captures the spirit of the thing succinctly.
- Postcard, Neoteric Ensemble
- Rebecca Ayer
- Collage on poster board
- 6 x 4 inches
- November 1985
- © 1985 the artist
- Somehow the tabloids and local press coughed up yet another set of inspiring non sequiturs for our use. History buffs will recall the US invasion of Grenada was two years before, in '83. Never, ever, underestimate the power of a hole punch.
