Fluxus and after

rneuil l l o o r l The primary position which John Cage is assigned in Maciunas's diagrammatic representation of fuwrci 22 lel u en ma u .te he history and development of Fluxus is indicative of the influence he had on many individuals 'vho later became Fluxists. Avant-garde music, like art, was based on a response which questioned, t e e x p e r i m e n t e d with, and frequently el 4hX C30 Z . . 41M 3M discarded existing traditions within th t J X Z discipline. Taking the work of the earlier e Futurists to its logical conclusion, Cage made the radical proposal that any ound could be used in wolf vostell music. His compositions often utilised incidental sounds from unconventional sources - the street, domestic and natural environments - and in doing so, rendered distinctions between de coil age es n e r u random 'noise' and melodic musical sound irrelevant. Accordingly, it followed that in order for aktons text nm r u e e music to exist, the act of listening was all that was required. In classes at the New School for Social Research, New York during the late 1950s, Cage communicated his ideas to students ed1tionhansjórgmayer1967 8, p es joui de including Dick Higgins and Jackson MacLow who, in turn, continued his experimentation and made music, in its broadest sense, an integral element of Fluxus. con nmediate r— Mozart Mix 1991 00 0'O i o n de tcur 5 cassette recorders, 25 loop tapes, screenprint on paper in wooden box c box: 10x86x81cm - 00 co copsdes assure alle Published by Rene Block, Berlin Collection Queensland Art Gallery U con metr conisterau Emphasising the individual characteristics of each element within the acoustic material, 4. c o n p e l l e t d e c o m p o s i t i o n s involving the notion of 'random operations' first entered Cage's oeuvre in 1951. The arrangement of these pieces was not preordained but, like the roll of a dice or fall of the Chinese con con I Ching stones, relied upon chance to determine their final sound. Accordingly, a unique 'sound' is UJ corn achieved each time a composition is performed. The intervention of the composer in the final form C) CNeblu of the sound is thus minimised, and the significance of the composer/creator is lessened. Within Cage's 1991 Mozart Mix. 'the new acoustic "objects" produced as a result of playing the tapes is entirely self-sufficient, being independent both of the original composition - M o z a r t - Named afterthe typeface in which theywere always printed, futura editionswere published during and of any subjective or artistic interpretations by the listener... through a proces the 1960s by the German typographer, Hansjörg Mayer (b.1943). They represent a series of poem acoustic coincidence and duration, a work comes into being that has no intentionality. This acoustic posters with compositions 'constructed in the concrete object... does not bear upon the meaning of its original Mozartian elements... The random mix way - all materials are used functionally', according .J OXm C3 3 M and unending repetition of the tapes erodes familiar meaning...'. to Mayer (Visual Poetics, p. 14). As manifestations of 1 1 9 r M o z a r t Mix 1991 [exhibition brochure], Kunst, Sydney 1992) 'concrete poetry', they demonstrate how literature and art have converged, becoming verbal/ visual statements. For futura 26 Filliou contributed a pattern for making a paper hat. A number of these editions published artists who were centrally placed within Fluxus including Dick Higgins, Robert Filliou and Emmett Williams. Diter Rot (Germany b.1930( futura 11, zum laut lesen 1966 Emmett Williams (United States b.1925) futura 12 rota poems 1966 Dick Higgins (United States b.1938) futura 21, January fish 1967 W o l f Voste)l (Germany b.1932) futura 22, de co/I age aktions text 1967 Robert Filliou (France b.1926( , " - " ' . " °" futura 26, ga/erie leg/time 1968 , Private e t F '