Pond

With Pond, first performed in 1962 Patterson invokes game-playing, chance operations, and musical components. The piece consists of an 8-foot grid taped directly on the floor, a score created by the artist, wind-up toy frogs, and eight participants that stand around the grid and make corresponding sounds as the frogs hop from one quadrant to the next. “Performer voices repetitive sounds after a jumping mechanical frog enters his zone on a charted floor.” The performance escalates into a cacophony of sound as more and more frogs are released, evoking the “ribbeting” of an active frog pond. 50 Years after, 2012 Ben Patterson developed an Up-Date of this Version