→ George Brecht / Motor Vehicle Sundown
1960. Motor Vehicle Sundown is a verbal instruction piece scored for any number of motor vehicles arranged outdoors.
For each vehicle, 22 auditory and visual events and 22 pauses are written onto randomly shuffled instruction cards. Beside ‘pause’, the events include: Headlights on and off, Parking lights on and off, sound horn, sound siren, sound bell(s), accelerate motor, radio on and off, strike window with knuckles, open or close door (quickly, with moderate speed, slowly), open or close engine hood, operate special equipment (carousels, ladders, fire hoses with truck-contained pumps and water supply), operate special lights (truck-body, safety, signal, warning, signs, displays). At sundown ‘(relatively dark/open area incident light 2 foot-candles or less)’, the performers arrive at the same time, seat themselves in the cars and start their engines at approximately the same time. They follow the instructions, substituting equipment for that which they do not have, and turn off their engines when they are finished.
