NOT WANTING TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT JOHN CAGE

Installation by Jeffrey W. Ludwig

NOT WANTING TO HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT JOHN CAGE

Environmental sound installation by Kristian Derek Ball

Fall 2012 marks the centennial of American artist and composer John Cage (1912-1992). A writer, theorist, philosopher, performer, and experimental musician, Cage’s work has sent ripples of influence through fields as diverse as mathematics, LGBTQIA studies, poetry and physics. Jeffrey W. Ludwig and Kristian Derek Ball reflect on Cage’s influence, indeterminacy, and chance operations in two installations.

SAY.  Not Wanting to Say Anything About John Cage is an homage to Cage’s lasting influence on my work.  The title references Cage’s piece, Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel [DuChamp], 1969, and is derived from a comment made by Jasper Johns after DuChamp’s passing.  This installation plays out an elaborate series of compositional and organizational systems, animated by chance operations.  The initial variables: twenty paintings on paper made with seven kinds of tea in seven different fonts, are based on texts from Cage’s compositional notes (1933-1963).  In the paintings, Cage’s words are mapped across an imaginary ½” grid, at times disappearing off one edge and reemerging from the opposite side.  Similarly, in the installation, a 2” grid wraps the space of the gallery and the placement of the framed paintings are mapped onto the walls by chance operations.  Marked by white wall anchors, these positions chart all the permutations that will occur over the course of the fifteen week cycle.  Each week, the works will be repositioned.  JWL

HEAR.  This environmental sound installation acts as an interface for experiencing sonic multiplicity through the acoustic blending of three different aural spaces.  The variable location of two floating wireless microphones, which rotate daily by the implementation of chance operations, may move to two of any of the 400 potential placements in Zoellner Arts Center indicated in the graphic to the left.  The third microphone remains stationary in the gallery space.  These acoustic spaces are emitted through three overhead speakers: one located at the doorway to the main gallery and two located in the doorways of the inner gallery.  KDB