"The Sonosopher" is the tentative title of a full-length, feature documentary film that is currently in production. This film will document the life and creative works of poet, polyartist, sonosopher, scholar, teacher, mentor...Alex Caldiero. The documentary and this blog are a portion of a greater, ongoing effort to record, document, and archive Alex's life and works.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

5/23 - Agrigento

9 comments:

Scott Abbott said...

The postcards are beautiful and thoughtful, real windows into what must have been an amazing journey.

But what the hell is a performative?

A first cousin to a chiropratic?

michael morrow said...

performative: A step-cousin to the macrobiotic colluvial fan found at the base of an ancient headless pyramid discovered by Egyptian archaeologists unveiled on Thursday. It is a 4,000-year-old "missing pyramid" that is believed to have been discovered by an archaeologist almost 200 years ago and never seen again.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, said the pyramid's head appears to have been taken by King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years.

Menkauhor was the first conservator of the originally soiled colluvial fan performative which evolved from its microbiotic half-sisters brain-child born outside in wedlocked collusion with ole' what's his name while residing in the ancient headless pyramid's nearest neighbor, the Agrigento temple.

michael morrow said...

I thought you guys would never get home. Amazingly beautiful pictures, stories, experiences and project. Thank you for making my great summer even better. I cant wait to see some footage and hear the stories.

michael morrow said...

performative: A step-cousin to the macrobiotic colluvial fan found at the base of an ancient headless pyramid discovered by Egyptian archaeologists unveiled on Thursday. It is a 4,000-year-old "missing pyramid" that is believed to have been discovered by an archaeologist almost 200 years ago and never seen again.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, said the pyramid's head appears to have been taken by King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years.

Menkauhor was the first conservator of the originally soiled colluvial fan performative which evolved from its microbiotic half-sisters brain-child born outside in wedlocked collusion with ole' what's his name when he resided in the ancient headless pyramid's nearest neighbor, the Agrigento temple.

Grabloid said...

well, what a good question, Scott! a performative (as we've been calling it and i've been understanding it) is not quite a performance, but a kind of performance, usually quite spontaneous (unplanned) with no real 'audience'...and for us to film as we went into these places. 'performative': having elements of performance (???). some forethought goes into it as far as the space that it is to take place in, but besides that it is basically improvised. the performative in front of the greek temple, for example, would be similar to being confronted with a difficult/obscure/unfamiliar sheet of music for the first time and attempting to seriously play it without ever having practiced it. this is something we should be asking Alex on film. several things like this have come up in my mind in the last few days that I want to ask Alex in a conversation (while filming of course). like this one, i want to ask him: 'how did it occur to you, or, in what way is that greek temple a musical score at all?!?!' it's not that i don't believe him, because i've seen him actively interact with it...it's just that i don't fully understand it. maybe he doesn't either, and this act of performing it (doing the sonosophical/performative act) is a way of trying to understand it too. that is interesting. is that an answer?

Grabloid said...

haha! ...'a first cousin to a chiropractic?' ...yes, definitely

Grabloid said...

also, a performative might be a mini performance in study for a more elaborate, infinitely larger and more planned performance

Scott Abbott said...

Travis, when you write "performative act," it makes perfect sense. And your description of an extemporaneous performance makes me think there's another word wanted here besides performance. But this kind of swapping of adjective for noun can be the act of an ear dead to language, so I'm always suspicious.

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