Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Rod <>]

I think there are multiple ways that you can approach this.

As an audio work: you can listen to your surroundings just 

fine without having to feel like you have to stare into a void,

so a comfortable amount of movement seems fine to me.

Scratch your nose if it itches. Zombie-like staring gives a 

kind of exclusivity to the action of listening that I don’t think 

was originally intended. Just listen.

I also look at this video as a visualization of the work.

With no attention to sound, the performer lifts a cup to

delineate the movements of the work. They and us, 

after-all, are spending time, not only listening generally 

(while we are also listening specifically with YouTube),

but watching generally and, a bit more so for us, 

specifically, for the ascribed time.

r

On Jul 16, 2020, at 9:22 AM, Paul Beaudoin <> wrote:



Aha - well, okay - that tempers it for me then Rod - thanks for clarifying.  I can imagine a billion different ways to signal movements - but, it's not my turn yet :-)

Paul Beaudoin, PhD

2015 Fulbright Scholar

Education Arts Research, OÜ 

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 5:18 PM Rod <> wrote:



The drinking from the cup is the way of defining the movements of the work.

Also, the same “signal” guy turns his head away from the camera at the end of the piece.

Rod