ROAD TRIP: drawing a perimeter of the united states is 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.

ROAD TRIP: drawing a perimeter of the united states is a 3-month long performance with the goal of building an active network of collaborators and creative partners throughout the United States. ROAD TRIP will consist of a series of performances, residencies, and collaborative projects, and will be documented on and supplemented by an interactive blog (you're reading it), to be accessible by any participants and/or interested parties.

ROAD TRIP will start in New York and travel along the perimeter of the US: down the East Coast to New Smyrna Beach, FL, for a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts; across the Gulf Coast to New Orleans; across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to a series of performances in Los Angeles; up the West Coast to Seattle; across Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, and Wisconsin to a residency at Heaven Gallery; then back to New York via Burlington, VT and Portland, ME. I not only hope to make contact with artistic communities in major metropolitan areas along the way, but also am very interested in interacting with artistic (and non-artistic) enclaves in rural and wilderness areas operating outside the grid. Along with several location-specific projects, ROAD TRIP will be centered around the repetition of three pieces:

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.

Given the amount of places that I am traveling, and the degree to which I am ignorant about most of them, I feel that bringing open scores (essentially, compositions that require the input/collaboration of other people to be completed) will be more location-specific than trying to write “site-specific” pieces. My goal with this trip, as stated above, is to interface in as direct a way as possible with as many performers (and people in general) in each location. I feel that that bringing such open scores to each community is a perfect way to do this – although the instructions will remain the same, each performance will be different, depending on each individual community.

I will also be documenting the whole experience online: as well as posting regular blog entries, I will be posting audio from each performance of THIS IS IT here, for instant listening/comparison; videos from the 4'33" performances on my Vimeo site; photos on my Flickr page; and, so long as my mobile service keeps up, I'll be tweeting regularly. At the end of the trip, I hope to have amassed a giant interactive archive of photos, stories, videos, and audio, available and accessible (for free!) to anybody and everybody. My hope is that this will serve not just as documentation of the trip and the projects pursued, but also as a library, a resource for artists, musicians, and the general public to learn about the various local artistic communities existing in our united states.

TOTAL 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

 

Saturday, Jan 16 - GRAND RAPIDS

TBA

 

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

 

Follow the ROAD TRIP Google Calendar to figure out where I'm going and when...