Week 2 - Researching artwork and Presentation & Drawing

Oct 5, 2022

Updated: Oct 12, 2022

Soundcheck before the playing

4’33’’

The most interesting song I have heard before.

Playing for 30 seconds

You could find that there is no any sound in this soundtrack. That’s pretty wried right? But let me introduce this artwork and we will get the point.

4’33’’ is a three-movement composition made by American experimental composer John Cage in 1952. [1] John cage believed that any sounds may constitute music, and there should not be a barrier between art and real life. He had this concept that guided people to refocus on the soundtrack in the real environment. He made 4’33’’ "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence". There is no instrumental sound in this work. All the “instruments” of this work came from the environment.

He said this when he gave the premiere for 4’33’’ ‘They missed the point. There’s no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn’t know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began patterning the roof, and during the third, the people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.’ [2]

That sounds experimental, right? But why and how he created these kinds of thoughts? I believe it has to do with the dada movement at that time. Artists were eagling to find traditional arts and concepts and put everything they had to overthrow them. Like Duchamp’s ready-made artworks Fountain(Image2) and Bicycle Wheel(Image3). If ready-made things, things we can grab in a store can be artworks. Why environmental sound can’t be an instrument and make up a song? John cage is definitely one of them.

If there is time left

I had done some works that shared the same concept of this, like back in China. I created this garment that is totally covered by mirrors. (Image 4,5) I put it on the ground. In this case, all the trees, cars, and environment become part of the pattern of this garment.

I named this artwork “Garments made by Trees, buildings, cars, and nerds.”

End of the presentation.

What you may not realize is that I didn’t turn off the 433 when I was presenting and I was recording my presentation. The reason for that is because: I want to make all your sounds, reactions, and my presentation part of this artwork. So in this case, we had created an art piece altogether. Thank you.

Oh I would later upload this to my Post.

Bibliography

1. 4′33″work by Cage(Betsy Schwarm, no date) Available from https://www.britannica.com/topic/433-by-Cage [Accessed 5 October 2022]

2. Kostelanetz, Richard (2003). Conversing with John Cage. New York: Routledge. P.70