Negators Tract Tar, a Modular Circus on Strange Attractor is derived from contributors to the book Strange Attractor (pub: Inventory Press & Ballroom Marfa, 2019): Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Thomas Ashcraft, Ben Boritz, Robert Buck, Alexander Calder, Beatrice Gibson, Phillipa Horan, Channa Horwitz, Lucky Dragons, Douglas Kahn, Mark Lombardi, Joseph Masco, Herbert Matter, Bernadette Mayer, Haroon Mirza, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Douglas Ross, Merlin Sheldrake, Elias Sime.

Each performance draws from a sequence of passages selected in advance; a mapping of the book’s interior. A musician who cannot improvise is referred to in jazz parlance as a “paper man”. Here, words on paper are modular content for iterative recitals.

The score is an iteration of John Cage’s “___, __ _____ circus on _________”, premiered in 1979 as “Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake”.

“(___, __ _____ circus on _________) is a means for translating a book into a performance without actors, a performance which is both literary and musical or one or the other. The first blank space in the title is the title the work will take, i.e. Roaratorio. The second and third consist of an article and an adjective, i.e. an Irish. The last is the title of the original book from which the work as a whole was drawn, i.e. Finnegans Wake” – John Cage Trust

On Montez Radio, Jan 30, 2020, a soundscape accompanied the performance: https://soundcloud.com/gryphonrue/strange-attractor-live-on-montez-press-radio

World Premiere: Printed Matter St Marks, New York City, Dec 12, 2019
Photos by Douglas Ross

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