“Having nothing to say” encouraged Cage as a composer but he was more a philosopher when he began working on chance controlled music.
His piece 4:33 consisted, no notes. The performer, performs an “empty” piece. But is it really empty? The audience sits in silence watching nothing, which gets difficult, as it is not something they are prepared for. This level of surprise can bring out any response from the audience, like the desire to be over, or frightened, bored, doubtful sleepy, attentive or maybe philosophical. The silence drives you to listen to the ambient sounds from the environment. Sounds we would otherwise ignore. There is a continuous dialogue with the performer and the audience, in which the audience is completely involved and becomes a part of the act.
Reflecting on the scope of this technology I think it could be interesting in creating conversations between influential people who we wish would have met, bringing voice recordings of those deceased alive and also to make in online education more interesting.
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