On August 29 1952, pianist David Tudor walks onto the Maverick Concert Hall stage in Woodstock, New York to perform in front of an audience who supported contemporary art through the Benefit Artists Welfare. Famous for his interest in experimental music; Tudor walks on stage, takes a seat on the piano, turned the music sheet around, sat there for four minutes and thirty-three seconds almost motionless and then walked off stage.

John Cage’s avant-garde composition 4’33” (1952) distinguishes listening from hearing. While we were in the lectorial we consciously chose to concentrate on the various sounds we were able to capture while we perceived the sound by ear (or the lack of sound) through hearing. From this sound of silence, we start to realise that the audience watching a performer becomes the performance. Furthermore, the ambience becomes the sound as the audience is captured by the simplistic act of not touching a single key on the piano. Cage makes us interpret the performance for ourselves; as a way to be in touch with our sense, to recognise the power (and irony) of silence as a sound in itself and to break these artistic conventions.

Would I have reacted this way if I were in the audience in 1952? No not all, as I would have had high expectations to be entertained instead of having to question what I was experiencing. But sitting in the lecture room for that four and half-ish minutes, I realised the importance of silence and to be open to interpretation for the purpose of art.