ROAD TRIP: drawing a perimeter of the united states, was a 3-month long performance project (completed late January 2010) with the goal of building an active network of collaborators and creative partners throughout the United States. ROAD TRIP consisted of over 30 performances and collaborative projects throughout a 8800-mile loop around the United States and through parts of Canada, and was documented on the old version of my blog (which has, unfortunately, been destroyed), as well as through photos, videos, and audio.
The route for ROAD TRIP, originally planned to strictly hug the US border, changed as the trip progressed, due to a number of unforeseeable circumstances, including a late-season tropical storm that barred me from traveling along the Florida panhandle to New Orleans.
An outline of the original route:
An outline of the final route:
The project had three core components, to be repeated at every stop:
THIS IS IT: an open text-based performance piece, to be performed at every stop along the way where there are performers comfortable with improvisation. I am also interested in working with visual artists on this piece, to find out where the practice of improvisation meets the practice of collaboration.
4’33”: John Cage’s seminal piece, consisting of three silent sections. I will treat it as video piece, to be performed by volunteer ensembles at each stop along the tour. The original score calls for the piece to “be performed by any instrumentalist of combination of instrumentalists and last any length of time” – in this performance, I will read “instrumentalist” as “performer,” and substitute David Tudor’s original performance of sections of 33”, 2’40”, and 1’20”, demarcated by closing, opening, then closing the keyboard lid with sections of 33”, 2’40”, and 1’20”, demarcated by sitting, standing, then sitting down.
road trip: A solitary project to be undertaken by me, consisting of drawing the route of ROAD TRIP, again and again, every day of the project, from the day I leave New York.
These pieces, with the exception of 4’33″, which I believe slowly matured over the course of the project, became more of a burden than anything. The goal of the trip, as stated above, was to interact with local communities, to see what is happening, and to see what, if anything, I could contribute to or learn from each individual situation; doing the same three things at each stop simply didn’t make sense. The road trip drawings were the first to go: withdrawing from any given social situation, which, when you’re staying on people’s floors, is every situation, to go and draw just seemed ridiculous, too precious and sanctimonious. The THIS IS IT piece seemed like a cop-out, a structure to impose on an improvisation so that nobody, including me, would have to really worry: in the end, we would all just say “this is it,” regardless. Its final performance as a controlled score was in Dallas, midway through the trip; from then on, I just used the title to designate any group improvisation situation. The 4’33″ piece, meanwhile, slowly moved from a performance that I conducted/controlled, set to a relatively rigid timeline and a very rigid set of movements, to being more of an open invitation to perform the piece as the performer interpreted it. The first “mature” video, I think, is this one, with Jacob Wick (not me) performing the piece in his kitchen:
I also added a piece, my solo trumpet performance swarm, to the mix, around the same time I stopped performing THIS IS IT. It made more sense, at the time, not only because the open structure of the performance makes it de facto site- or situation-specific, but also because I was venturing into areas where I did not know any improvisers.
ROAD TRIP: drawing a perimeter of the united states was a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of ROAD TRIP: drawing a perimeter of the united states may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax- deductible to the extent permitted by law.
FINAL SCHEDULE
Saturday, Oct 3 – BROOKLYN
THIS IS IT with Brad Henkel, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Reuben Radding, Jen Baker, Amy Cimini, Katie Young, Peter Hanson, and Nathaniel Morgan, Jason Ajemian
8PM @ Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass St #1, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Sunday, Oct 4 – PHILADELPHIA
THIS IS IT with Jason Ajemian, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Nick Millevoi, and Dan Blacksberg
5PM @ Sci-Fi Philly
Gojjo, 4540 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19143
Monday, Oct 5 – BALTIMORE
THIS IS IT with Jason Ajemian, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Bonnie Jones
8PM @ the April house
Contact for details
Tuesday, Oct 6 – WASHINGTON DC
THIS IS IT with Jason Ajemian, Aaron Martin, Mike Sebastian, Jon Simler, Sam Lohman, and Ed Ricart
9PM @ Bossa
2463 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Thursday, Oct 8 – CHARLOTTE
swarm + THIS IS IT with Brent Bagwell, Michael Houseman, Andy Thewlis, Scott Wishart, Robin Doermann, Ross Wilbanks, Casey Malone, Bo White, Ben Kennedy, Dustin Bronstein-De’Nice, Ron Brendle, and Tyler Baum
8PM @ Story Slam
1401 Central Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205
Saturday, Oct 10 – COLUMBIA
swarm
8PM @ If Art Gallery
123 Lincoln St, Columbia, SC 29201
Sunday, Oct 11 – CHARLESTON
THIS IS IT with Ron Wiltrout, Nick Jenkins, Sam Sfirri, Bill Carson, and Lee Barbour
8:30PM @ Eye Level Art
103 Spring St, Charleston, SC 29403
Monday, Oct 12 – Friday, Oct 30
Residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Master Artists Elliott Sharp, Rineke Dijskstra, and Antonya Nelson
Thursday, Nov 5 – NEW DELHI
with White Rocket (Greg Felton and Seán Carpio)
7PM @ India Islamic Cultural Centre
87-88 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, 110 003 India
Tuesday, Nov 17 – NEW ORLEANS
THIS IS IT with Jeff Albert, Dan Oestreicher, Jesse Morrow, and Dave Capello
9PM @ Open Ears Music
Blue Nile, 532 Frenchman St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Friday, Nov 20 – JACKSON
swarm
8PM @ Lewis Art Gallery
Millsaps College, 1701 N State St, Jackson, MS 39202
Tuesday, Nov 24 – HOUSTON
swarm
8PM @ Super Happy Fun Land
3801 Polk St, Houston, TX 77003
Wednesday, Nov 25 – AUSTIN
swarm
8PM @ Cherrywood Coffeehouse
1400 E 38 1/2 St, Austin, TX 78722
Friday, Nov 17 – DALLAS
THIS IS IT with Ken Shimamoto, Terry Horn, Sarah Alexander, Stephen Lucas, and Mike Maxwell
8PM @ Phoenix Project Collective
406 S Haskell Ave 75226
Sunday, Nov 29 – MARFA
swarm
8:30PM @ Hotel Paisano
207 North Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843
Thursday, Dec 3 – WINNETKA
Guest artist with New Trier High School Jazz Ensembles
7:30PM @ New Trier High School
385 Winnetka Ave, Winnetka, IL 60093
Friday, Dec 4 – LAS CRUCES
swarm
8PM @ Preston Contemporary Art Center
1755 Calle De Mercado, Mesilla, NM 88046
Friday, Dec 11 – OAKLAND
with Kyle Bruckmann and Gino Robair
8PM @ 21 Grand
416 25th St, Oakland, CA 94612
Wednesday, Dec 16 – EUGENE
swarm
8PM @ The Jazz Station
68 W Broadway, Eugene, OR 97401
Thursday, Dec 17 – PORTLAND
with Aaron Zarzutzki, Wilson Shook, and Carol Genetti
8PM @ enterbeing
1603 NE Alberta, Portland, OR 97211
Friday, Dec 18 – SEATTLE
with Zarzutzki, Shook, Genetti
8PM @ Gallery 1412
1412 18th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
Saturday, Dec 19 – SEATTLE
with Zarzutzki, Shook, and Tyler Wilcox
8PM @ Gallery 1412
1412 18th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
Tuesday, Dec 22 – MINNEAPOLIS
with Zarzutzki, Shook, Genetti
8PM @ Art of This
3506 Nicolette Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Monday, Dec 28 – CHICAGO
with Jason Stein
7:30PM @ Myopic Books
1564 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
with Jeb Bishop, Jeff Kimmel, and Frank Rosaly
10PM @ The Skylark
2149 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60608
Thursday, Dec 31 – CHICAGO
with Jason Ajemian & the High Life (Ajemian, Peter Hanson, Owen Stewart-Robertson, Marc Riordan) and White Blue Yellow and Clouds (Ajemian, Hanson, Stewart-Robertson, Riordan, and Matt Bauder)
9PM @ Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee, Chicago, IL 60622
Monday, Jan 4 – CHICAGO
with Jason Ajemian & the High Life and White Blue Yellow and Clouds
10PM @ The Skylark
2149 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60608
Saturday, Jan 9 – CHICAGO
with Jeff Kimmel and David Moré
10PM @ Protest Heaven
Heaven Gallery, 1550 N Milwaukee, Chicago, IL 60622
Sunday, Jan 10 – CHICAGO
shank (with John-Paul Glover, Jeb Bishop, Frank Rosaly)
10PM @ The Hungry Brain
2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
Friday, Jan 15 – CHICAGO
swarm + THIS IS IT with Carol Genetti, Paul Giallorenzo, and Fred Lonberg-Holm
8PM @ Elastic Arts Foundation
2830 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
Tuesday, Jan 19 – TORONTO
swarm + THIS IS IT
8PM @ Somewhere There
340 Dufferin St, Toronto, ON
THURSDAY, Jan 21 – MONTREAL
swarm + THIS IS IT
8PM @ L’Envers
185 Avenue Van Horne, Montreal, QC
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