 |
 |
as i tried to suggest, i regarded the 'storming of Artforum' a rather moot point. I found an interesting live recording of John Cage, though, from 1976 when he spoke just prior to the performance of his "Lecture on the Weather". [The performance starts with the reading of the preface. In it Cage expresses his disgust with the institutions of American government. After that the work starts, the 12 men reading and singing text fragments by Henry David Thoreau, and/or play instruments (ad lib.). In part 1 this is accompanied by sounds (on tape) of wind and in part 2 by sounds of rain. In the third part the lights in the performance-space are dimmed and the performers are accompanied by the film and the sounds of thunder. The film consists of Thoreau drawings, printed in negative, the projection resembling lightning (white on black) The performers have to agree on a total duration of the work (between 5 to 8 periods of 273 seconds, resulting in durations as mentioned above). Every performer creates his own program of starts and breaks, covering the duration of the composition. The work was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] From Cage's preface: > processes constructed after chance operations are not mysterious sources for the "right answers", they are a means of locating a single one, among the multiplicity of answers, and at the same time they are the means of freeing the ego from its own taste and memory, its concern for profit and power. They are the means of silencing the ego, so that the rest of the world has the chance to enter into the ego's own experience, whether that be outside or inside. > source: http://greg.org/archive/2011/07/04/john_cages_lecture_on_the_weather.html regards Johannes Birringer