john cage

i am not sure how to conceive of sound as sculpture. well, now that i'm thinking about it, if sculpture is a reckoning of space, or a work that attempts to account for and comment on space, sound pieces that take into account the physical space in which the sound is heard, or sound pieces that take into account the phenomenological experience of sound (a phenomenological approach being one that examines the physiological reception of sound as well as the cultural and social landscape of the reception of sound)– such work can indeed be considered sculptural.

but we expect sculpture to have three-dimensional qualities. sound could be conceived of as three-dimensional, since it travels in 3D space, fills that 3D space. also, it might be argued that sound in a specific site can make the audience more aware of the site itself, so that the sound turns the site (the auditorium, the public space [the street], the private space [the bedroom or the car]) into a sculpture, and the audience is also part of the sculpture.

in this sense john cage's work opperates as sculpture. his work 4'33" draws the audience's attention not only to the ambient noises of the environment but also makes the audience consider the context of a performance and the attendent conventions of a performance. the sculpture is a room of people, gathered together, all their expectations, their reactions to the piece (bafflement, confusion, anger, ammusement), and finally the chance noises that occur to fill the space.

fluxus

virginia adams taught a new course here at mica last semester: art since the 1960s. it included extensive readings whose density eclipsed most of my other time commitments. to me, it was worth it, to be taken through the debate about objects and into the era of conceptual art where writing and philosophy joined with the visual arts to form hybrid work that was intellectually compelling and materially minimal.

this semester for thesis i am working with two ideas that seem sympathetic to some fluxus artists' strategies. the material for this work is text messages and song lyrics. although it still needs to be focused, the work consists so far in the appropriation of popular song lyrics and transmitting them via text message to a friend or a love object as a means of expression. i understand the lyrics as readymade sentiments that stand in for an original expression.

i am having trouble with the presentation of the work. the activity of texting is decidedly quotidian and the means of representation i've used so far to document it (digital photography) is not providing additional dimension to the work. i would like to be able to hone the idea more so that if the presentation is indeed minimal (like yoko ono's instruction paintings) the stark presentation is better accounted for in the content.



now that i'm looking again at her work, it seems ono's work is appropriately minimal since the poems themselves are proposals for potential work. perhaps the minimal quality of a digital photo of a text message would cause me to think about the ineffectuality of a text message. it is small, received remotely. . .

stay tuned--