ACE124.3 (00:06:38 - 00:14:24)
God, with serpent and apple (and Michelangelo’s The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1508-1512) talks about the Garden of Eden and his “contract with the two tenants”. God on The Fall; reminding the audience that Bach would have considered human suffering to be part of his grand design. Music over. Wishart’s VO suggests that the idea of human suffering as part of God’s plan is “structurally there, inside the music”. God starts Adam and Eve’s performance; they are joined by unseen choir. Wishart says that he finds that musical structure is “full of ideas” and that by changing the structure of the Bach piece, he is “commenting on what that music is about”. God talking about an alternative classic creation story which posits him as “celestial clock-maker”, a role in which he disappears after setting the universe going; everything subsequently carries on according to the laws of mechanics. Gog and Magog striking the hours on St Dunstan’s Church, Fleet Street. Clockwork. Wishart talking about wanting to use clock automata, and about the idea of the universe as a giant clockwork mechanism.

ACE124.4 (00:14:24 - 00:22:41)
Adam and Eve playing. God makes stuffed animals and birds move and call. Adam and Eve offered food by mechanical means. Wishart on his ideas for using Skinner boxes and musicians on a mechanical clock, which he eventually centred on Skinner’s behaviourist ideas and on ideas of free will and determinism. God points out that this conflicts with notions of a mechanical universe and doesn’t enable any differentiation “between a living creature and a machine”. The Silver Swan, an eighteenth-century automaton. Clockwork. God reads from Descartes who believed “the human body was just a sophisticated machine…”, different from other living creatures in that it possessed rational consciousness. Rat maze. God points out that the argument is no longer convincing as animals can be conditioned. Adam and Eve and assorted stuffed animals and birds and a mechanical owl. More food.

ACE124.5 (00:22:41 - 00:32:00)
A small stage (Georgian Theatre, Richmond). Wishart’s ideas of transferring visual effects from performance theatre to musical theatre, and trying to emulate elaborate seventeenth century theatrical effects. God as deus ex machina; he explains its original theatrical use as a restorer of harmony. Wishart points out that this assumes that there is a natural order. Adam and Eve in bad weather. More food. A rat. Rat in Skinner box. Wishart’s VO describing how this works. He explains why he wanted to put musicians into a similar box. Skinner on metaphysics. He explains to four Observers the theory of “positive reinforcement” – correct performance is rewarded, tells them that, in Walden Two, the problems of the human condition have thus been solved. Wishart criticises Skinner as taking a scientific idea to extremes – that because consciousness cannot be observed, it doesn’t exist. Skinner tells Observers that human suffering has been eliminated in Walden Two. Skinner takes Observers to listen to music, including an organ solo from Bach’s B Minor Mass; Wishart says Skinner doesn’t see the irony in liking Bach whose inspiration comes from the idea of human suffering. Wishart playing the organ. He says that his version of the Mass comments on Skinner’s theories by changing the structure of the music, and that music. He emphasises the importance of metaphysics and of being able to criticise it. Skinner argues with God, saying that he assumes that the universe is ordered in some way.

ACE124.6 (00:32:00 - 00:42:23)
Wishart argues with Skinner’s idea that creativity cannot conflict with the harmonious nature of the community, saying that true creativity challenges the established order. Adam and Eve. God’s contributions make the music wilder, but then it reverts to its former style. Adam and Eve put God into the vanishing cabinet and he disappears. They turn off a tape recorder behind their performance space, and walk away. Credits.