S & G Dances, 2008
Performance with props - 10 minutes
After listening to Simon & Garfunkel's albums Bookends (1962) and Bridge Over
Troubled Water (1972), we wrote 'definitions' (reductions of each song's content to a
few sentences), then translated each of these into a diagram, which we then used as
notation for movement to choreograph a performance.
Part I: Definitions of the Songs on the Album 'Bridge Over Troubled Water,' by Simon &
Garfunkel
Song 1 - Bridge Over Troubled Water - total participation is possible, even though it is
insane
to rely on this illusion, it is still comforting; (the illusion of) progress in escapism.
Song 2 - El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - uninhibited, assertive, active and undefined
existence
is preferable.
Song 3 - Cecilia - a romantic comedy.
Song 4 - Keep The Customer Satisfied - realization that the world is cruel and that home
is
preferable.
Song 5 - So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright - a 'thank you' - spatial relationships are capable
of
producing specific emotional states.
Song 6 - The Boxer - self inflicted beliefs of restrictions are realized; one's
destiny is of
his own making.
Song 7 - Baby Driver - People equated with machines; a classic anxiety associated with
innovation and progress.
Song 8 - The Only Living Boy In New York - The impenetrable (immovable, consistent)
nature of
the urban subject, in contrast to their physical restlessness, results in delusions of
isolation.
Song 9 - Why Don't You Write Me - The urban subject, even removed from the urban
environment,
still suffers from isolation, but once 'grounded' he becomes the subject of desires of human
interaction - meta-subjectivity.
Song 10 - Bye Bye Love - Have not, want not.
Song 11 - Song For The Asking - 'Art' is perfect when it is a construction of a void,
into which
the other (audience/viewer) can insert meaning.
Part II: Definitions of the Songs on the Album 'Bookends', by Simon & Garfunkel
Song 1 - Bookends Theme - formatting: this is an album of music type stuff.
Song 2 - Save The Life Of My Child - everything is apart of society, there is no such
thing
as a private act, everything is a spectacle, any act is susceptible to the interests of an
audience.
Song 3 - America - The answer is the question.
Song 4 - Overs - threshold, the liminal space before the end, confusion between past and
present: not sure if the interaction at hand has actually happened.
Song 5 - Voices Of Old People - this is not a song; explanation of motive and gives
perspective
of the act of following designated things, but most people spend their whole lives trying to
understand death, when you can't, because it doesn't exist.
Song 6 - Old Friends - note: the writers of this song were not 60 years old when it was
written - raises the questions 'where does the song end' and 'where does the object end'
disjunction between experience and conceptualization of parts of things, that of 'of';
experience of time between two points - the ends.
Song 7 - Bookends - a focus on the space in between the two points.
Song 8 - Fakin' It - the act of objectifying the (natural) world, and to objectify
things,
makes it manageable, even though one's own speculation does not convince oneself, that which
is made manageable, is falsified in the production of its explanation or simulation.
Song 9 - Punky's Delemma - musing that the world was as digestible as it seems.
Song 10 - Mrs. Robinson - (deleted)
Song 11 - A Hazy Shade Of Winter - (see diagram)
Song 12 - At The Zoo - (see diagram)
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