David Tudor: Bandoneon!

Bowerbird is pleased to present a free screening of Bandoneon! (a combine), a documentary about David Tudor’s groundbreaking 1966 performance, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Julie Martin.

Bandoneon! was Tudor’s first full concert work as a composer, performed as part of 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering—a legendary collaboration between ten New York artists and thirty engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories. Tudor played the bandoneon as input into a complex sound and visual modification system that moved sound between speakers and controlled lights and video images, animating the entire 69th Regiment Armory space. This documentary reconstructs the original performance through archival film and vintage photographs, featuring interviews with the performers, engineers, and Tudor’s fellow composers. The film offers rare insight into one of the most ambitious experiments in live electronic performance and interdisciplinary collaboration of the 1960s. Julie Martin, who directed the film and worked closely with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) co-founder Billy Klüver, will discuss the project and answer questions following the screening.