Fugal Systems is an umbrella project encompassing a variety of performance based works, including music and sound performances employing various collage tactics, as well as reading-performances that scramble, graft, or otherwise interpolate appropriated texts. The underlying principle of all the pieces is to investigate signal-noise relationships through layers of simultaneous sounds. I'm interested in the way this simultaneity demands that the listener actively tune in to the various strands of the sonic fragments.
Fugal Systems #7: Refrains and Echoes (with Angel Bat Dawid and Norman Teague).
Experimental Station, Chicago. October 27th 2019
For this iteration of Fugal Systems I collaborated with Angel Bat Dawid (musical director) and Norman Teague (sculptural designs) for a three hour multi-disciplinary, immersive event. Each musician and dancer was given a playlist by Angel Bat Dawid and performed in isolation from one another only responding to the music they were hearing through their headphones. Simultaneously, a live mix of all four musicians was streamed in a separate area. The public was invited to explore the labyrinth-like space of Experimental Station and experience each performer in isolation, as they crossed paths, or listening to the live mix in isolation. Norman Teague built four structures that served as "stations" marking the spot of each of the musicians. All of the materials for these structures came from Experimental Station's archive of surplus materials from past projects and experiences.
Fugal Systems #6: Does Anybody Know I’m Here.
Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. January 31st 2019
An adaptation of the structure of the first Fugal System performance, this event featured Billie Howard (violin), Ayanna Woods (keys), Angel Bat Dawid (clarinet, vocals), and Adam Vida (drums). Performers were given unique but overlapping playlists of songs from the Billboard 100 from the week of the performance 50 years prior in January 1969.
Playlist and staging by Jordan Martins
Musicians: Billie Howard, Ayanna Woods, Angel Bat Dawid, and Adam Vida.
Fugal Systems #5: Fire Bowls and Selected Boundaries.
Comfort Station, Chicago. August 16th 2017
Performance in conjunction with my "Stay out come in stay in come out" installation at Comfort Station, with Ben Lamar Gay, Katie Young, Ryan Packard stationed in three of the six structures of the installation, spread across the lawn. Musicians were given text-based prompts as parameters for their improvisation, with the added instruction to make sounds as though they were communicating with one another across distances. Background beats/vocals were courtesy of "The Writer's Bench" event across the street, featuring rap battles, break-dancing competitions, and graffiti artists
Staging and prompts by Jordan Martins
Sounds by Ben Lamar Gay, Katie Young, Ryan Packard
Fugal Systems #4: Differences in Permeability.
Comfort Station, Chicago. July 28th 2017
A reading-performance, in conjunction with my site specific installation "Stay out come in stay in come out" on the lawn of Comfort Station. Three readers situated within the installation will simultaneously read a set of related scripts, each of which scrambles various appropriated textual sources: technical descriptions of biochemical processes, first hand accounts of border crossing, observations about bird mating rituals, instructions for crowd control tactics, and dubious advice about flirtation from askmen.com.
Texts and staging by Jordan Martins
Readers: Allen Moore, Tracy Montes, and Rebecca Himelstein
Fugal Systems #3: It was more a face than a figure.
The Mission, Chicago. April 7th, 2016
Performed in conjunction with my video installation "How easy is a bush a bear". The source texts for this piece were early twentieth century clinical studies concerning hallucination, from which I pulled first hand descriptions of various patients' accounts.
Texts and staging by Jordan Martins
Readers: Michelle Holder, Dan Mohr, Erik Stonikas, Becky Grajeda
Fugal Systems #2: Graças de Ação.
Museum of Bahian Art, Salvador, Brazil. November 21st, 2015
This text based performance occurred two days after Thanksgiving, as part of Perto de Lá in Salvador, Brazil. The text samples several sources, primarily in reference to the story of Thanksgiving (using both primary sources and contemporary accounts, by figures such as Rush Limbaugh) and the story of Caramurú--a portuguese sailor shipwrecked on the coast of what is now Salvador, Brazil, captured by natives, and was eventually instrumental in founding Salvador as a city in the portuguese empire. Additional textual sources include various transcripts of contemporary art dialogues about international exchange and socially-engaged projects. "Graças de Ação" aims to conflate the notions of cooperation, fair exchange, power hierarchies, and "hard work" present in each of the respective narratives.
Texts and staging by Jordan Martins
Readers: Talitha Andrade, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti
Fugal Systems #1: Tired Eyes.
Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. September 24th 2015
This first performance in this project series took place at Experimental Sound Studio in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. Three musicians set up in different, somewhat isolated areas of ESS’s building--Nick Broste (piano), Steve Marquette (guitar) and Jeff Kimmel (bass clarinet)--plus a “community” electric keyboard on the back patio allowing the public to participate. At each station, there was a pair of headphones and a specific playlist of songs selected by me. I asked the participating musicians to play along with the playlist as though they were practicing or learning the songs -- learning chord changes, following melodies, or adding accents and flourishes -- and encouraged them to pause the recording or repeat certain sections as much as they wanted. Each musician was in their own world, only hearing their own playlist and their playing with it, but a live feed of all stations was playing in the main gallery of the building for the public to hear the conjunction of the four separate instruments. The clip above is a brief sample of what the playback of all four instruments sounded like.
Playlist and staging by Jordan Martins
Musicians: Jeff Kimmel, Steve Marquette, Nick Broste