Performative Reenactment of âCassette Tape Recorder as a Magickal Weaponâ Austin Pratt, 2013 via William S. Burroughs, 1968 âIt is to be remembered that all art is magical in origin â music, sculpture, writing, painting â and by magical I mean intended to produce very definite results. Paintings were originally formulae to make what is painted happen. Art is not an end in itself, any more than Einsteinâs matter-into energy formula is an end in itself. Like all formulae, art was originally functional, intended to make things happen, the way an atom bomb happens from Einsteinâs formulae.â - William S. Burroughs "Port of Entry: Here is Space-Time Painting." Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age. 2003. âCassette Tape Recorder as a Magickal Weapon,â William S. Burroughs Described by Performance Artist Genesis BREYER P-ORRIDGE âWhat Bill explained to me then was pivotal to the unfolding of my life and art: Everything is recorded. If it is recorded, then it can be edited. If it can be edited then the order, sense, meaning and direction are as arbitrary and personal as the agenda and/or person editing. This is magick. For if we have the ability and/or choice of how things unfoldâregardless of the original order and/or intention that they are recorded inâthen we have control over the eventual unfolding. If reality consists of a series of parallel recordings that usually go unchallenged, then reality only remains stable and predictable until it is challenged and/or the recordings are altered, or their order changed. These concepts lead us to the release of cut-ups as a magical process. [Once, eating at a cafĂŠ in London], âWilliam was treated with great disdain, with rudeness beyond belief. Crass, crude, rude, nasty and aggressive, insulting behavior quite beyond the acceptable pale of manners. Such was the rudeness and unpleasantness experienced by William that he swore never to eat there again. But, more than that, his disgust and anger was so intense and intentional, so unforgiving and angry in the moment that he felt quite compelled to experimental âsorceryâ (his word to me, take note). What form did his curse take? Here follows the first lesson in contemporary intuitive and functional magick. âWilliam took his Sony TC cassette recorder and very methodically walked back and forth in front of the offending cafĂŠ, at breakfast time and other times of the day, making a tape of the ongoing street noises that made the sonic background of its location. A field recording encapsulating a typical day via street sounds. Next he went back to his apartment and at various random places on the same cassette he recorded âtrouble noisesâ over bits of the previous recordings. These were things like police car sirens, gunshots, bombs, screams and other types of mayhem culled primarily from the TV news. Then he went back to the cafĂŠ and again walked up and down the street outside playing the cut-up cassette recording complete with âtrouble noisesâ. Apparently the tape does not need to be played very loud, in fact just a volume that blends in so that passers-by on the other side of the street, or a few feet away would not notice the additional sounds as implanted fictions. This process was repeated several times, quite innocuous to any observer. âLâhombre invisibleâ at work. Within a very short time, the cafĂŠ closed down! Not only did it close down, but the space remained empty for years, unable to be rented for love, or money. âConsensus reality is, just that, an amalgamation of approximate recordings from flawed bio-machines. The background noise of our daily lives is almost as equivalent of a flimsy movie set, unfolding and created by the sum total of what people allow to filter in through their senses. This illusory material world, built ad hoc, second to second is uncommon to us all. It will only seem to exist whilst our body is passing through it. After that its continued existence is a matter of faith.â BREYER P-ORRIDGE, Genesis. "Magick Squares and Future Beats: The Magical Processes and Methods of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin." Trans. Array Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Richard Metzger. 5th ed. New York: The Disinformation Company Ltd., 2007. 103-118. Print. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERFORMANCE: On Wednesday, February 27, 2013, I will be reinterpreting Burroughsâ 1968 act, but with a benevolent twist. I will be positively reinforcing an establishment I feel is deserving of magical âunfoldingâ and âeditingâ. Only just in itâs infancy, Renoâs urban farming project, Lost City Farm is a symbol of regeneration and health in Renoâs current cultural progression. Obviously, because of the service he received, Burroughsâ victim probably didnât need his âhelpâ, and wouldâve gone out of business sometime. Lost City, in this regard, probably doesnât need any help either. The plot has already been acquired, a city ordinance allowing urban farming has been proposed and passed, and donations and services are already coming in from the community. In my action, I will positively alter the reality of a business that might otherwise thrive anyway. By Wednesday, I will have methodically recorded the natural sounds of the farm as it is now, and âcut-upâ this time, instead of âtrouble soundsâ, life-affirming ones; âvitality soundsâ. I will then come back and proceed to innocuously play this new recording, in the environment in which it was recorded, with the intention of magically and purposefully editing the reality of Lost City Farm. Art=Magic; Life=Art. [Join the Facebook event]
