Ooli

Jeanne Graff is a writer and curator. She is the author of Vzszhhzz, which came out last year from Semiotext(e)/Native Agents. Since 2014, she has been curating an “art space without walls,” called 186f Kepler, named for an alien earth-sized planet, and inverted to appear like an imaginary address. Artists showing there have included Juliana Huxtable, Anne Imhof, Mai-Thu Perret, Sabrina Roethlisberger, and Gaia Vincensini. This month, Graff will begin a series at the Canal Street space Lee’s which will take place the first Tuesday of every month, among the performers will be actor Jim Fletcher. 

Fletcher is a member of Bernadette Corporation, an actor, and among the founders of New York City Players theater company with director Richard Maxwell. He is currently on stage in the eight hour Gatz, showing at NYU’s Skirball Center. Graff and Fletcher recently took a walk in Central Park to look for birds and discuss their respective practices. The two have been working together on a play titled, (to Sylvère) The Birthday Play. Below is a field recording of what transpired that day, a hybrid of written sound, digital emoji and French-English mashup. Like the title, of Graff’s book, it plays with the amorphous nature of words spoken aloud into the world.

schinck tssching tschunklink pschunk pschlink pintxh plintsch  tschinck tssching tschunklink pschunk pschlink pintxh plintsch

Jeanne et Jim emerge from under the footbridge.

bip bipbip ibp
Woooooowwiiiiiiwwwooooowwiwiiiooooooowwiiiiiooooooowwwwwooooo

Jim stops walking. Jeanne stops walking. They are looking at a bare tree.

JIM: It sounds like a…

JEANNE: Do you know what kind of bird it is? 

JIM: American Starling.

JEANNE: Which one?

Wiiiiiiiiii

JIM: That’s a… it’s not really about what kind of bird.

JEANNE: That’s a dove. That’s a mini-tree. T’as vu? Il est tout petit.

Wiiiiiiwwiiiiiwoooooo

JEANNE: Do you watch birds a lot?

JIM: Aaalll the time.

Wiiiiiiwwwwiiii

JEANNE: There is one that I like a lot. It sounds a bit tropical and I don’t know what it is 

JIM: How does it sound?

JEANNE: Hmmiiii hiii hiiii

JIM: You know we have parrots in NY.

JEANNE: Ah ouais?! It’s one you hear in Asia, too.

JIM: It sounds like a big bird?

JEANNE: Yeah, like hiiiiiHhhhhhhhhh hiii hiieuuu.

JIM: Very big and loud?

JEANNE: Ouais, louder than this: Wiiiiiiii. My...