John Cage’s 4´33˝ was first performed by the American pianist and composer David Tudor at a recital of contemporary piano music in Woodstock, New York, on August 29, 1952. The score is composed of three movements lasting 30 minutes (30’), 2 minutes twenty-three seconds (2’23”), and 1 minute 40 seconds (1’40”), respectively. Although 4´33˝ can be performed with any instrument or combination of instruments, the musical score directs that no intentional sounds be created and that the intervals are filled only with the sounds of the audience and the environment. John Cage (1912–1982) explained that the work “becomes in performance the sounds of the environment” (Kostelanetz, 2005). Through
4´33˝ Cage demonstrated the impossibility of pure silence, and he relinquished authorial control by assigning creative agency to the listeners. This type of readymade soundscape is also an integral element of Paik’s Zen for Film, which is contingent on the viewer’s surroundings and chance events taking place both on the screen and in the projection room. —CA

Image: The Museum of Modern Art, Acquired through the generosity of Henry Kravis in honor of Marie-Josée Kravis, 1636.2012. © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. © 1960 by Henmar Press Inc. Used by permission of C. F. Peters Corporation.