A Perfect Day

Performance lecture. 2021.

“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.

The work was first presented by APHIDS at Composite, Collingwood Yards, on the 22nd of December, 2021. Developed on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Boonwurung land.

This project was supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.