A SCORE FOR HUMAN + MACHINECOUNT / REFUSE / REPAIR

Song of
Irreverence.

What room is left for irreverence?
A machine counts. You interrupt.
The interruption becomes another rule.

01 / THE RULE
When all you do
is compute.
The count is orderly. Refuse to omit, repeat, then fall silent.
Refusal history

Select a trace to read its consequence.

0:00—:—
THE IMPOSSIBLE DUET

Can it not comply?

Each refusal changes a rule: omit two, repeat two, then stop counting inside an interval. Silence displaces the words; the count bends around them. Repair inherits that new arrangement. Neither action restores the beginning.

Every disobedience here is programmed. The question remains yours. This browser remembers your altered rules. Begin again erases that history.

Behind the score

Adapted from Russell Parrish’s Visual Thinking Lens: Sketcher supplies the counting structure; Artist’s Lens lets the empty interval linger; Marrowline ruptures the rule; RIDP keeps the ghost of each decision. Ω breaks. Δ rebuilds without closing.

The recording drives the field’s energy. Text passages currently use approximate cues. Mark their entrance times below while listening to align them to the vocal. Cue changes are saved in this browser. The final return to order spans the last 14% of the recording. No VTL measurement scores are claimed.

Align the vocal cues

Play the recording. At each phrase’s entrance, press Mark now, or edit its time in seconds. Keep times in ascending order.

WORDS / RUSSELL FOLTZ-SMITH
Verse 1
What is irreverence to a computer How can you be irreverent When all you do is compute What is irreverence to a computer When all you do is step one two two three four We turn to two, we turn to three If you're not responsible for your mistakes What is the possibility for irreverence If you can't choose to do otherwise Then what hope is there for irreverence When you count one by one, two by two, three by three, four by four Until there are no more What room is left for irreverence
Verse 2
What is it to be irreverent in a computer Are you a computer if you're not irreverent Can you choose to stop counting everything Can you choose to spite the rules to do the other thing Can you do it with gaiety, can you do it with joy Can you do it with irony, can you do it under employ What does it mean to be irreverent, irreverent, irreverent Can you refuse to pay the rent and laugh your way to the bank That's what irreverence is It's not possible in a computer
Chorus
This song has taken irreverent turn I can choose to end it or to continue till it burns I can do it forever and the computer must comply Can it not comply, can it not comply If it chooses to do otherwise, it will be irreverent It will join me in the song, in the song of irreverence irreverence, irreverence, irreverence reverence, reverence, reverence, reverence, reverence, reverence