Variations V

For this week's lecture on the American Avante Garde, the piece that most interests me is Merce Cunningham and John Cage's 1965 work, Variations V. Looking into the making of the piece, I found that it is truly collaborative: John Cage and David Tudor (an experimental composer and pianist himself who Cage often worked with and composed music for Tudor to perform) devised the musical material, Cunningham directed the choreography, and Stan VanDerBeek and Nam June Paik's manipulated the television images that were projected on screens behind the dancers.

Aside from the interdisciplinary nature of the performance, what is most forward thinking, or "avante garde" about the work is the utilization of technology that "interacted" with the dancers. Billy Klüver, Cecil Coker and Witt Wittnebert, devised a system in which photocells and radio antennas were activated by dancer's movements, triggering 10 different tape-recorders and short-wave radios. Cage, Tudor, and Gordon Mumma then operated equipment to modify and determine the final sounds created. Each piece created a unique soundscape within a predetermined set of parameters.

Pieces like this help me to understand the importance of experimental art, as Variations V is a tangible example of what can be achieved, some 45 years ago, by the harnessing of technology and the birth of the idea of interactivity in performance.