winesburgohio:

from Variations V, by John Cage 1965. Made for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The music was generated by a series of sound systems rigged up on the stage, resulting in a unique score for each performance.

“[Cage] and David Tudor settled on two systems for the sound to be affected by movement. For the first, Billy Klüver and his colleagues set up a system of directional photocells aimed at the stage lights, so that the dancers triggered sounds as they cut the light beams with their movements. A second system used a series of antennas. When a dancer came within four feet of an antenna a sound would result. “  

Just got back from the final performance of Cunningham’s Nearly Ninety @ BAM with Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones, and Takehisa Kosugi. Just wonderful and inspiring, I don’t have proper words really. I wish I knew more about this dance stuff, and also, wish I could sit and watch it again…

I found myself being sucked in, blurring senses, half aware state of wonder, not really comprehending what I’m seeing but somehow feeling all kinds of emotions in regards to it, marveling at its complexity… and then consciously pulling myself out, in case i was missing something by being sucked in… only to get sucked back. I think that’s how this stuff is supposed to work.. art makes you think and feel, doye. so glad i went. gonna write a song now.