Section 10: Introduction to the Yong Turtle Asymmetries

Section 10: Introduction to the Yong Turtle Asymmetries

Experimental poetry; Chance operations; Performance poetry; Simultaneous performance; Nonstanzaic poetry; Aleatory composition; Fluxus; Language poetry; Indeterminate music; Sound poetry; Acrostic procedures; Nonintentional composition; Poetry scores; Turtle biology; Scientific sources in poetry

An explanatory text printed on five detachable cards that provides instructions and contextual information for performing chance-generated poems designed for simultaneous reading by multiple voices. The work documents Mac Low's compositional methodology for creating the "Young Turtle Asymmetries," poems generated through systematic chance operations using source material derived from scientific descriptions of turtle mating habits and life cycles. Mac Low employed what he termed "acrostic reading-through nonintentional text-selection procedures," wherein objective systems rather than authorial intention determine the selection and arrangement of linguistic units from existing texts. The poems are described as nonstanzaic, meaning they lack traditional stanza structure, and are notated as performance scores requiring five simultaneous readers whose voices overlap and interact to create complex sonic textures. This introduction accompanies the audio recording on Section 5 (the flexidisc), where the asymmetries are performed by Carol Berge, Spencer Holst, Iris Lezak Mac Low, and Anne Waldman. Mac Low's work, influenced by John Cage's experimental music and informed by Buddhist philosophy and anarchist-pacifist politics, challenges conventional notions of authorship and meaning-making in poetry by removing ego and intentionality from the creative process.

Mac Low, Jackson, 1922-2004

Roaring Fork Pres (New York, N.Y.)

Fall-Winter 1970-1971

Graham, Dan, 1942-2022 (Editor); Maciunas, George, 1931-1978 (Designer); Johnson, Phyllis, 1926-2001 (Publisher); Berge, Carol (Performer, Section 5 recording); Holst, Spencer (Performer, Section 5 recording); Mac Low, Iris Lezak (Performer, Section 5 recording); Waldman, Anne, 1945- (Performer, Section 5 recording)

Is part of Aspen Magazine No. 8 (Fall-Winter 1970-1971); Explains performance on Section 5 flexidisc recording; Part of "Asymmetries 1-501" series (1960-1961); Subset published as "Asymmetries 1-260: The First Section of a Series of 501 Performance Poems" (Printed Editions, 1980); Connected to Mac Low's co-publication with La Monte Young of "An Anthology of Chance Operations" (1963); Influenced by John Cage, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff; Associated with Fluxus movement; Preceded Language poetry movement

Pamphlet

English

Performance instructions; Poetry score; Explanatory text; Artist's documentation; Compositional notes

Temporal: 1965-1971 Spatial: New York, N.Y. Aspen, CO.