THE FUTURE IS NOW
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A Tribute to John Cage
Artist
Nam June PaikDating
1973, re-edited 1976Medium
Video, colour, sound, 29 min 17 sec
Credits
Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Produced by the New Television Workshop and the TV Lab at WNET/Thirteen
Host: Russell Connor. Guest: Alvin Lucier
Performers: John Cage, Marianne Amacher, Richard Teitelbaum, Pulsa, Charlotte Moorman, David Behrman, David Tudor
Excerpts of work by Cathy Berberian, Jud Yalkut, Francis Lee, David Rosenboom, Jackie Cassen, Stan VanDerBeek, Alfons Schilling
In this multifaceted portrait, Paik creates a collage of Cage's performances and anecdotes, interviews with friends and colleagues, and examples of Paik's participatory music and television works that parallel Cage’s strategies and concerns. The methodology and philosophies that inform Cage’s radical musical aesthetic—chance, randomness, the democratisation of sounds—are demonstrated as he performs Cage’s most famous work 4'33" in Harvard Square and throws the I Ching to determine performance sites. The video includes footage of Robot K-456 walking around New York, early performances by Paik with Moorman, and anecdotes from composer Alvin Lucier.
