Collection of David and Rebecca Ayer
The projects and contributions area at dekalborama.com
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.
Ayer_Collection_0000 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0001 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0002 Edit the file
- 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!
Ayer_Collection_0003 Edit the file
- 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!
Ayer_Collection_0004 Edit the file
- 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!
Ayer_Collection_0005 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0006 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0007 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0008 Edit the file
- 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.
Ayer_Collection_0009 Edit the file
- 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!
Ayer_Collection_0010 Edit the file
