Page 40 - Studio International - May 1972

Eight pieces by Dan Graham

1966-72
All these pieces, with the exception of Body Press,
were presented at the Lisson Gallery, London in
March 1972.

Lax Relax May, 1969
A girl is instructed to say the word ... lax...to breathe
in and out once, then to repeat the word... and to
continue in this pattern for about 15 minutes. (The
girl may be hypnotizing herself).
Before a live audience I say the word... relax...
into a microphone connected for amplification to a
tape-recorder with self-enclosed speakers which is
simultaneously playing at the same volume level (on
the other track of the playing tape) the previously
recorded girl's voice track of... lax.
During the performance, my input is : I) my self-
relation, 2) my relation to the voice of (content and my
relation to) the girl, 3) my relation to the audience's
attention(s).
At first my outward responses (timing, phasing)
reflect consciousness of all 3 inputs. Gradually later
there is a shift to self and girl's voice alone; finally later
still there is a total self-absorption. (I may be
hypnotising myself).
The performance begins with both words in phase;
they move in and out of phase, with irregular breathing
modules; in the time of the piece the intervals
gradually tend to regularize in phase. Both my vocal
intonation and body's posture and the other voice's
expression tend to 'identify' with our particular phase
and progressively become more self-contained in
relation to the audience's involvement. The audience
may become involved in its own breathing patterns—
responses —and thus locate the surface of its
involvement: somewhere between 'inside' my
breathing and its; it may become hypnotically
affected.

Past Future Split Attention January, 1972 Two Consciousness Projection(s) January 1972
Two people who know each other are in the same One woman focusing attention only on a TV monitor
space. While one person predicts continuously the image of herself must immediately verbalize (as
other person's future behaviour, the other person accurately as possible) the content of her
recounts (by memory) the other's past behaviour. consciousness. The man focuses consciousness only
Both are in the present, so knowledge of the past outside himself on the woman, observing her through
is needed to continuously deduce future behaviour the camera connected to the monitor. He also
(in terms of causal relation). For one to see the other verbalizes his perceptions. The man's and the
in terms of present attention there is a mirror woman's (self-contained) conscious and unconscious
reflection (of past / future) cross of effect(s). Both's or dream-hallucination intention is expressed. Because
behaviour being reciprocally dependent on the other, of the two performers' time process of perception,
each's information of his moves is seen in part as a verbalization, and perception / response to the other's
reflection of the effect their just-past behaviour has verbalization there is an overlap of consciousness.
had in reversed tense as the other's view of himself. Each's verbal impression, in turn, effects the other's
For the performance to proceed, a simultaneous, but perception—forcing more accelerated than usual
doubled attention of the first performer's `self' in sequences of learning. Specific sequences of perceived
relation to the other('s impressions) must be impressions, relative rapidity, impart semantic time
maintained by him. This effects cause and effect (content).
directionality. The two's activity is joined by numerous
loops of feedback and feedahead words and behaviour.
This is made into a video-tape.