Fencing

"Fencing": When I attended a community college from 1973-1974 I took such classes as "Obstacle Courses" & "Fencing" as well as the more obvious "Music Theory" & "Music History". I was particularly fond of Fencing & even gave a demonstration at a nearby high school. 50 yrs later, I learned that competitive fencing now uses an electronic system for scoring in which the lamé (the vest) has a metal mesh that's grounded to & in which a button at the tip of the sword (in the case of what I use, a foil) that, when depressed, sends a signal to an electronic scoreboard that judges consult to see if a hit has been made. This inspired me to acquire some fencing gear to modify so that the foil can be used for triggering electronic sounds. I demonstrated this nascent idea to my friend & collaborator, Roger Dannenberg, in a brief improvisation that we played at the bottom of a waterfall. Roger was then inspired to build some Fencing Electronics Boxes that contained a microprocessor that enabled a signal from the foil to be turned into a MIDI signal. When this works, a depression of the button triggers a random pitch, a button on the box triggers a random 5 note sequence out of a 6 note pitch-set, & contact between the foil tip & the lamé of one's opponent triggers a fast sequence. In reality, this has never worked quite right - probably because the fencing's vigorousness is quick to disconnect & otherwise disturb connections &, perhaps, even the interior of the Electronic Fencing Boxes. Nonetheless, Roger & I put quite a bit of work (& imagination) into working toward the desired end. My ultimate goal was to present this at AfterMAF 2025 (in Roanoke at Art Rat Studios). Roger was unable to attend the festival so I was fortunate enough to have my old friend Brian Gentry be willing to be my fellow fencer. Somewhat surprisingly, he, too, had been a fencer when he was younger (as well as a martial artist) - ensuring that our fencing wouldn't be completely without vigor. Originally, I had imagined someone acting like a feeble old woman as the 3rd character in this event but I eventually decided for this character to be evocative of "Blaster" Al Ackerman's "Hebephrenic", a face well-known to those familiar with Blaster's work. Olchar Lindsann agreed to this role. The sign on the front of Olchar's walker reads: "It's Always 6 O'Clock - Do You Know Where Your Parents Are?". This sign & walker were originally designed to be part of my action at the 40th anniversary of Neoism in Montréal in 2019. I was both censored out of the festival by Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor) because he was afraid I'd oppose his desire to be the world leader & because I was too poor to get there. As such, this Fencing action is intended to be a wry commentary on Neoism, delayed until 6 years later. In the actual AfterMAF presentation, my electronics regularly flew off my arm. This was unintentional & had never happened before but while it was happening I grew to welcome it because of its humorous effect. It's not like my life has always gone my way. The (v)audience seemed to enjoy it in the same spirit. This movie documents the entirety of the growth of this action, some may find it tediously detailed, others may relish its thoroughness. I even throw in a bit of an "irrelevant Interpolation" with Claire Elizabeth Barratt & Tomislav Butkovic because I was very entertained by it & because it wasn't on the official AfterMAF schedule & was, therefore, likely to've been missed by most of the attendees.