Susan Gerofsky

This film is a performance of a combinatoric poem and song on seven elements, structured as a 7-strand braid. It reflects my fascination with translating combinatoric group structures across different artistic forms and media. The braid structure here takes the seven initial elements through 14 ordered permutations (of their 7! = 5040 possible permutations) to return to the initial string. Starting with seven coloured ribbons, the pattern is made from the first seven letters of the alphabet, A to G; the 7 musical notes of the A natural minor scale; and a seven-word initial sentence starting with the letters A to G, set to an asymmetrical 7-beat bar. The film also embodies a multisensory pedagogical approach to mathematical understanding, through visual, verbal and musical realizations. Musicians and dancers in East Vancouver, a place of crows, performed their parts of this musical poetry reading in socially-isolated settings, and the elements were combined to create the film.