A Perfect Day
“Time is an invention and nothing else.”
– Henri Bergson
“At five I must have left, there's no exception to the rule ; A matter of routine, I've done it ever since I finished school”
– ABBA
A Perfect Day is an experimental performance lecture and guided listening tour through “pop song schedules” — songs in which the singer lists everything they do in a day. The work uses tunes by artists such as ABBA, Sheena Easton and the Pet Shop Boys to explore how the pressure to be productive determines the rhythm of our existence under contemporary capitalism. Bringing together performative musicology and critical theory, the work asks what types of time are available to us. How do structures of insecure employment and atomisation shape our lives? Is the perfect day a productive one? The performance includes discussion of themes of regularity, labour and regimentation, a projected presentation of audiovisual pop song samples and numerous low-brow musical interludes.
Performance Lecture in Solidarity Hall at Trades Hall
Catherine Ryan
Engagement: LAB.01Catherine Ryan is an artist who works with performance, sound, text, video and installation. She uses humour and references to philosophical and pop figures to interrogate how the neoliberal imperative to be productive structures both the experience of time and the disciplining of the body. She has exhibited and performed at galleries and festivals in Australia and Europe, including Gertrude Contemporary, MUMA, the Royal College of Art (London), the Vienna Biennale and the Melbourne Art Fair. She has recently undertaken residencies with Vitalstatistix (SA) and Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. Catherine is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT, where she is undertaking research into how ideas from experimental musical can provide new ways of thinking about our present ecological crisis.