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DESCRIPTIVE LETTER OF OUR SUMMER IN EASTHAMPTON
A small 8mm. projector rested close to and facing audience, a sheet of standard stationary next to it. Borrowed a pen from member of the audience. Wrote day's date on stationary and then "Dear one, our escape to the island effected successfully." Left the body of the letter blank, adding below "Gratified to hear of your involvement in the movement to dump Johnson. Slaps and pinches, Ken." Flicked on movie, aimed but not focused at audience so at this point only a stream of light. Knocked out room lights but plenty of fine cold daylight coming In through open door to MacDougal Street. Requested nearest person in audience to read letter.
Her back to audience she read aloud, lighting letter In projector beam, moving closer to projector (I had to impurely guide her to do this -- she apologised later that she'd been surprised, embarrassed, and wasn't usually so slow to catch onto things: I married her too and now we have a lot of swell kids) so that a miniature movie image in vacationland color focused Its rectangular self within confines of letter. Audience Fathered forward, observing tender nearpalpable woods and beach scenes through translucent paper. Paper had a couple of normal letter-folds which occasionally bent scenes (and therefore flattened them, broke the movie depth-illusion for a two-dimension return), Hand-held "screen" would also tilt, pulling image into odd shapes, and move, sliding image t- where it would just hold onto its projection-existence by a corner and then slide back in again - also it would go through some violent fluctuations In focus when letter was shifted forward ant back In space. The emulsion colorgrains that had so well between them memorized the shapes of treesand waves now under this intense fnotfrom-the-nose scrutiny seemed more individually active and ephemeral than over.
Cries of "me, me!" rose from the audience's pubic region but it turned out they came from the mouths of children, lured to the church's Destruction Festival no doubt by promises of violence and rampage (I could see that I had wreaked plenty of havoc with this piece as the audience returned to its seats afterwards, some more destroyed than others by my brutal abuse of their expectations) (for hadn't DESCRIPTIVE LETTER, in its aberrant gentleness, thoroughly accomplished the destruction of the festival- concept itself? thus raising the concept to levels heretofore unimagined?) Well, these children as they turned out to be now grabbed the latter and for most of the 10-15 minute duration of the work It was in their hands. It was alright because their diminutive stature necessitated their holding the letter up towards the NO to catch the picture, allowing more of the audience to see the images over their diminutive heads.
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