Now these experiments started not on tape recorders but on paper.
In 1959 Brian Gysin said that writing is 50 years behind painting
and applied the montage
technique to words on a page.
And this technique had already been used in painting at that
time for 50 years,
it was in fact kind of old-fashioned painting.
Brian copied out phrases from newspapers
and magazines,
then took the scissors and cut these
selections into pieces and rearranged
the fragments at random.
And it's this one, it's with one knee,
and he wore a round of suits,
and he moved just like a parrot.
Through a thousand harvest fields,
and the kids were out still on turn,
on the banks of the brown sea.
While passing over,
over Galilee.
When you experiment with cut-ups over a period of time,
you find that some of the cut-ups
and rearranged text seem to refer to future events.
I cut up an article written by John
Paul Getty and got,
it's a bad thing to sue your own father.
This was a rearrangement,
it wasn't in the original text.
And a year later, one of his sons did sue him.
We had
no explanation for this at the time,
just suggesting that perhaps when you cut into
the present, the future leaks out.
But we simply accepted it and continued the experiment.
The next step was to cut up some tape recording,
and Brian was the first to take this obvious step.
Now here are some tapes which Brian
made with all the technical facilities,
the BBC among them,
and they show, I think,
what can be done with a human voice and one phrase.
Calling all reactivation.
Calling, active, calling.
Calling all reactivation.
Calling all reactivation.
Calling all reactivation.
Calling all reactivation.
Calling, calling,
calling, calling, calling.
We are calling activation.
We are activation.
And his lips were amazed with points.
And he wore a crown of stools.
And he moved just like an arrow.
Through a thousand harvest moon.
And we cared for our stick marten.
On the banks of the brown sea.
Cloud passing over.
Cloud passing over.