The
performance work of John Cage
was a significant catalyst in the continuing breakdown of traditional
boundaries between artistic disciplines after World War II.
In the late 1940s, during a residency at Black Mountain College
in North Carolina, Cage organized a series of events that combined
his interest in collaborative performance with his use of indeterminacy
and chance operations in musical composition. Together with
choreographer Merce Cunningham and artists Robert Rauschenberg
and Jasper Johns, Cage devised theatrical experiments that furthered
the dissolution of borders between the arts. He was particularly
attracted to aesthetic methods that opened the door to greater
participation of the audience, especially if these methods encouraged
a heightened awareness of subjective experience. CageÕs use
of indeterminacy and chance-related technique shifted responsibility
for the outcome of the work away from the artist, and weakened
yet another traditional boundary, the divide between artwork
and audience.
CageÕs work proved to be extremely influential
on the generation of artists that came of age in the late 1950s.
Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins
and Nam June Paik were among
the most prominent of the artists who, inspired by Cage, developed
non-traditional performance techniques that challenged accepted
notions of form, categorization, and composition, leading to
the emergence of genres such as the Happenings, electronic theater,
performance art, and interactive installations.
|