Released in 2000 by Extreme Records (Melbourne, Australia) as a celebration of the imprint's tenth anniversary position. Took four years to assemble through a core team of seven people. One thousand copies struck. Fifty discs. One book. One CD-ROM. One t-shirt. One medal. The Bureau files this listening-protocol document as the record of attempting to engage with the object at the scale the object proposes.
The fifty discs § ii
The Bureau's catalogue grid, in the working order in which the discs were issued from the box. Each tile represents one disc; the positions are documented through the Akita catalogue across 1979 to 1998. Hover indicates the Bureau's notation on the disc's mode.
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Bureau state grid · hover indicates notation per disc
The Merzdallion § iii
The artefact struck for the Merzbox transaction. The Bureau's record of the medal's position:
Merzbow
M
commemorative
· 2000 ·
stylised bureau reconstruction · bureau visual palette · one of one thousand
The Merzdallion is the object's bureau certificate-of-acquisition working artefact. The struck surface bears the position's bureau mark and the year of issue. The Bureau records the working medal as significant beyond its physical scale: the working artefact constitutes the Merzbox position's mark, the signature, the documentary record of the transaction. The working medal later extends through the acquisition history into the collector tradition (one thousand working medals across the collecting population).
Field report · the listening § iv
The Bureau staffer's notes, in the working order of the listening. Reproduced verbatim from the log.
disc 01 · day 1 · 09:42
Beginning the position. The method is identifiable: extended electronic surfaces, high-frequency mode, sustained method. The early release is documented through the cassette tradition. The vein sustains.
disc 03 · day 1 · 14:18
Three discs filed. The method has sustained across approximately three hours. The idiom is documented: extended noise surfaces with no internal caesura. The Bureau's position is sustained.
disc 07 · day 2 · 11:04
Seven discs filed. The method sustains. The manner has, the Bureau's staffer notes, begun to develop a sustained career in the environment. The room has become procedure.
disc 12 · day 4 · 17:31
twelve discs filed. the method sustains. the palette sustains. the staffer files a note: the position has begun to listen back.
disc 18 · day 6 · 22:07
eighteen discs filed. the noise has become the room. the room has become the position. the position is sustained.
disc 22 · day 8 · 03:14
There is, the staffer files, a sustained order in the mode. The method has become procedure. The Bureau's position is the position. The position is the Bureau's position. There is no caesura. The caesura is the position.
disc 26 · day 9 · 16:42
Half the position has been filed. The position is the position. The staffer has begun, the Bureau notes, to file the position in the vein. The position files itself. The position is procedure.
disc 31 · day 11 · 04:55
filed · working · position · sustained · the · working · position · sustains · the · filed · working · method · sustains · the · working · idiom · sustains · the · sustained · working · position · sustains
disc 35 · day 12 · 19:20
[notes illegible · the log's later pages contain only the word ‘sustained’ written approximately four hundred times in descending size]
disc 41 · day 14 · 08:11
The position has, the staffer is now confident in filing, achieved standing. The method is the method. The position is the position. There is, the staffer files, no remaining caesura between the manner and the position. The discs continue.
disc 48 · day 16 · 13:47
Forty-eight discs filed. Two remain. The position is approaching completion. The staffer notes a small procedural grief.
disc 50 · day 16 · 23:58
The fiftieth disc has been filed. The position is complete. The room is procedurally quiet. The staffer files the report and replaces the discs in the box. The Merzdallion is, the staffer files for the record, on the desk. The Bureau's position is documented. The position closes.
Note on continuation § v
The Bureau records, for the working file's later continuation, that Masami Akita has continued to produce positions at approximately the sustained rate documented across the pre-Merzbox career. The position has, at the time of the Bureau's filing, produced approximately several hundred additional documents after the Merzbox's 2000 working release. The position is unfinished. The position is unending. The Bureau notes the fact and proceeds.
Listening protocol complete
The Bureau files this listening-protocol document as the record of the Merzbox engagement. Fifty discs filed. The Merzdallion is in the Bureau's archive. The Akita position is, at the time of filing, sustained.