Tag: Noticing

John Cage: The Art of Noticing

Alaine Thompson on

John Cage was born in late 1912 and died on August 12th, 1992. And yet, his mark still remains on music and art history. Cage challenged the very idea of what constitutes music, playing amplified cacti and plant materials with a feather:

‘Waterwalk’, in which Cage uses a variety of things (mostly containing water and surrounding a piano):

John Cage’s music challenges the very notion of what music is. Just as we as media practitioners must find the malleability within our art form, Cage constantly tests the boundaries of what music is by distilling it down to its purest and most basic forms and then experimenting. By doing this he creates his own ideas about sound and does not rely on the limitations already put in place by musicians before him.

In Cage’s 4’33”, Cage performs, quite literally silence, but as you will notice, silence does not exist, as when a room has no external sounds, we become acutely aware of all the other sounds constantly surrounding us, such as our heartbeats, breathing, coughs, chair squeaks, etc. Any sounds that we’d normally place in the background come forward. I could place a video example here, there are plenty of them on YouTube, examples of people performing nothing, or you could just find a silent spot and sit and listen to the ‘silence’ for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

The question is though, is this music? Cage is quoted as saying that, “everything we do is music.”, so every sound, every little exclamation or breath we take is music. We just don’t hear it very often because it’s cluttered by all the other sounds we create and subject ourselves to for entertainment. Cage was very interested by the concept, or sounds which silence produced:

John Cage, even though he may be a practitioner of sound, ‘silence’ and music, is vital to study when undertaking any arts related course, because looking at Cage’s work forces you to look differently at a medium you may have unknowingly perceived as being within a strict, stationary box. Whereas Cage’s work, and many other experimentalists like him prove, that there is no limit to what can be achieved with a medium.

The Essential Art of Noticing

Alaine Thompson on

In our week 2 lectorial Brian Morris talked to us about media itself, and this quote pretty much sums it up, “The media are not so much ‘things’ as places which most of us inhabit, which weave in and out of our lives. Their constant messages and pleasures seem to flow around and through us, and they immerse most of our working lives”. (Morris, 2015)

Brian then went on to talk about texts, “sites where meanings are generated through the manipulation of materials and codes [and] do not simply ‘picture’ or ‘reflect’ a reality where meaning resides.” (Morris, 2015) This means that while media texts do in a way represent our reality, as they are created by an individual, they are therefore influenced by the way that individual percieves the world and thus the text is only a reflection of reality through that individual’s eyes.

Texts also tend omit certain information, as though attempting to persuade opinion or win an argument, as through omitting content in various ways, different effects can be achieved. This idea of omittion brought up another idea, of mediated vs. unmediated communication, as in communication utilising a medium such as books, films, the internet, etc. Unmediated communication, such as face to face interaction has an authenticity and a direct experience associated to it, whereas in modern society where social media communication is predominant, communication is more distant, as in order to communicate we have to go through another conduit to reach the desired person.

Media is everywhere, whether it’s assaulting your senses as you try to read on a Melbourne Central platform, or just sliding past you on your Facebook feed. The trick is noticing the interesting little details that inspire you to create or appeal to your view of the world.

Noticing things is surprisingly difficult. We don’t take in half the things we see as we are “multi-sensate beings, we are inundated with sense impressions all the time.” (Mason, 2002 ) Researching Your Own Practice, The Discipline of Noticing. This makes it increasingly difficult to notice even an instant of a moment and take note of it.

John Cage’s most famous performance emphasises our ability to notice things, as well as how cluttered our lives can get, as in his performance 4’33”, also known as ‘sounds like silence’ he performs nothing, allowing the people in the room to stop and notice the things they normally take for granted, such as breathing or the beating of their heart. He also created an emotional reaction and awareness, as many people panicked at the idea of sitting in a theatre and waiting for something that never happened, allowing people to become more readily aware of their bodies reactions as well.

Do you take the time to notice that the sun is actually shining when you’re having a horrible day? To see the interesting grafitti on the street? To see the birds dance through the shopping centre? Do you notice the life around you, or are you too focused and crowded in your head that you forget that the world is huge and yet small at the same time? These are all questions that are worth thinking about, if you just take time to notice the eccentricities of life.

– Morris, Brian. Lectorial, week 2

– Mason, John. “Researching Your Own Practice. The Discipline of Noticing.” Routledge Falmer, 2002