Let the Porsches Sing: Motor Vehicle Sundown

by Frank Heidlberger, UNT Professor of Music Theory photos by Elena Heidlberger, Ben Damann

A truly unique event took place this April on the University of North Texas campus. Nine Porsches, a Ford Model A, and a police car got together on a parking lot. Parking in a half circle, each of the eleven “performers” had to do specific actions with their cars according to a detailed score in minutes and seconds, controlled by two conductors: honking, running the windshield wipers, switching headlights on and off, opening and closing the trunk/frunk and doors, move convertible tops, and more.

suggested to involve not only my own Porsches but also other members of the Maverick Region. Bill Kruder was enthusiastic about this project and helped to find eight other brave members to come and participate in this performance. Brzoska and his students arranged the piece by adding the driving components to the score which greatly improved the excitement. To see Porsches (two aircooled 911s, two 914s, two 718s, and

The two “soloists” had extra actions: the police car used its lights and siren, the Ford its funny bells and whistles. Most performers had a “navigator” on the passenger seat instructing the actor to do the right action at the right time. More actions came into play: each car had to go forward and reverse or drive on the parking lot clockwise and counterclockwise. This was incredible fun for everyone involved: conductors, performers, spectators . . . but what was this all about?

In 1960, the American artist George Brecht created this piece as part of experimental art, called “Fluxus” –everyday actions put on stage, controlled by some sort of organization which by itself is ruled by chance operations. While the original worked with index cards that got mixed to decide about the sequence of actions, one uses computer chance algorithms nowadays. The piece was first performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was then mostly forgotten until Matthias Brzoska, a German music professor, performed it in Berlin in the 1980s. Brzoska is teaching at UNT this spring. When he told me about his idea to perform this piece as a student project, I immediately my own 986 Boxster as well as a 991) in a performance like this is a once in a lifetime experience. Scan the QR code for a video of this performance on YouTube.

Photo walk

With The Dallas Center For Photography

Several students turned out to the Southlake Mavs & Mochas from the Dallas Center for Photography to take photos along with the instructor, Richard Klein. All really seemed to enjoy the subject matter, and the morning cloud cover made for a good day to experiment and learn. Thanks to Alan Nusbaum for coordinating with DCP and the students for their time and talents. Photos provided by (above and counter-clockwise) Tim Hoang, Michele Quiroga (2), Sterling Goldberg, Tim Hoang, Alex Walker.

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