I just got an e-mail from the curator of the George Antheil website. He says selections from Ballet Mechanique will be performed by a robotic orchestra at the National Gallery of Art in March. I'm not sure I can justify the trip to D.C. for a 10-minute excerpt of the concert, but I'm thinking about it.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/permalink.jsp?id=4036
Posted by Dennis G. Jerz at February 13, 2006 12:38 AMAs part of the big Dada exhibition I would assume. But I couldn't find any information on the NGA Web site. Do you have any more details?
Posted by Matt K. at February 13, 2006 07:44 AM
You may already have it on your syllabus, but left it off the blurb since its rep isn't as big as the film's; but if you haven't, you should see if you can dig up the Jonathan Nolan(Christopher's brother and co-screenwriter)'s "Memento Mori" in the issue of Esquire timed with the film release (it's easily full-texted and I think PDF'd via ProQuest, though the photography comes across more powerfully in the Bruce Willis on the cover printed issue).
The short fiction, while a little "magazine slick," still engages writing practices more explicitly than the film, and since we're talking about "slippery or loopy self" referential inscription, I've found it a good companion piece to something like Krapp's Last Tape, as well as the film.
(just remembering as I was typing that the last time I taught this, a student told me that there's an edition of the film on DVD with a the story bundled to it, haven't seen that).
Posted by Midnightplat at February 13, 2006 05:07 PMThanks MP, that's a great tip.
Posted by Matt K. at February 13, 2006 07:27 PMThe best info I have is what I've put on my blog at the URL included in my previous comment.
Posted by Dennis G. Jerz at February 13, 2006 10:52 PM
N.P. from the m.p. I've never really heard Basinski, though from what I've read about him, I just don't see him doing anything different from Reich, Lucier, et al. I sort of lump him in with a trend I identify as "bedroom producers 'rediscovering' the mid twentieth century," but my writing's become pretty flippant toward electro acoustic experimentation, ever since I read Bob Ostertag's "Why Computer Music Sucks". "I am Sitting in a Room" would be my choice on sound inscription. Kim Cascone's "The Aesthetic of Failure" and its discussion of glitch music may be up this seminar's alley, or tangentially related to what you're working on with Mechanisms.
Good tips again, MP. Regret that I now have to close comments due to spam.