Pickety Wickety Clickity Clack

A picket fence does not have to look even. It can be uneven just as well. When it is uneven, the sound will be more interesting when the neighborhood boy comes by with his stick to drag along the staves.

Long sticks make low notes. Short sticks make high notes.

Cut the sticks and tune them. Arrange them so a recognizable tune can be played.

Let the boy and the neighborhood discover that the fence has a tune.

Let the Neighborhood discover why the fence is so uneven.

Change the tune each year.

Make a wooden fence in a circle. Tune the interchangeable sticks so you can play a round. Three children running around and clacking the fence at the same speed can play the round.

An essay written by Marx.

Cast your nets into the deep

The 1972 sabatical trip
of the USA covered 33,000 miles
included every state
wife and 2 sons in a Winnebago motor home.

Thousands of people as audience and
workshop participants. A stunning experience!
Now it is ending.
Last day of trip.
Heading for home.
What to do to make it special.

The map showed Pibel Lake
near Burwell on the way.
We’ll stop there.

Dorris picked some flowers in the road ditch
the day was quiet and beautiful
and the pond was small, weedy, dirty
with a sandy beach.

Karl made a boat out of dried weeds to float
and Paul dangled a line with a bare fish hook
in the water
To play
No pole
Peace.

I felt grateful for Divine guidance
and was filled with energy and
a shout.

How does one say thank you?

I grabbed the reel with the line
and the bare metal hook
From the hands of Paul.
I pulled back my right arm.
and flung out the bare hook
with all the praise, energy
and thanksgiving I could muster.

What a feeling of release!

The instant the hook hit the water
a large fish grabbed it.
I had a fish,
and a possible heart attack.

With yelling and shouting
and pulling on the line
the fish was brought to the shore.
It measured from the tip of
my middle finger to the top
of my shoulder.
Thirty inches!
of Northern Pike.
No pole, no license
no intention.

Can there be success without intention?

A poem written by Marx.

- Amber Konz

Studio visit

Our class was fortunate to be able to go over to Marx's studio a few days ago and play with some of his sound sculptures and his flurries.

If you want to see more pictures of the sound sculptures, check out this link

Sound Sculptures (there are some pictures of his Stardust on this page).

Last but certainly not least, here is a picture of the man himself:

and this is what he has to say:

It was a boring Saturday
at the Mills College
sculpture studio
in California.
No Plans for the day.
I found a door knob on the table
and welded some wires on one end
just for the fun of it.
I place a knob to my ear
and strummed the wire
on the opposite end

WOW

I got another door knob
welded some wire on it also
and connected the two door knobs
with a metal wire which went over
my head so the knobs
were against my ear.

I invented a manual Walkman.

Found in the Marxhausen gallery--poem used in one of his shows.

- Amber Konz

These comments were posted on the original blog site:Fantastic pictures. The sound sculptures are so awesome, I wish I had some of my own to play around with, and the flurries are just as entertaining. It's good to see the blog up and moving along, and it's looking fantastic. And now to bookmark it.

October 21, 2009 | Steven Odom

I saw this post on Gizmodo and immediately thought of Marxhausen http://gizmodo.com/5435603/a-worse-slinky

Thank you for the Flurry picture; I guess my memory is accurate.

December 28, 2009 | Eliot