John Cage12 In The 1950's

In the early 1950s, composer, John Cage12 was influenced by the concepts of the Dadaist and Futurist performance. In 1952, he presented at Black Mountain College a performance combining multimedia elements of film and pre-recorded sounds with spoken word and movement. When applying Kirby’s definition of a Happening, this event meets the criteria. The performances were self-contained units, presented at the same time with a focus on the “found environment”13 and open to chance occurrences14 that might change the interactions. Cage included multimedia in the performance space by using tape recorders and film. Reminiscent of the Dadaist performances, Cage read a lecture as Charles Olsen and other performers sat with the audience and spoke lines. At the same time, Merce Cunningham danced, David Tutor played the piano, M.C. Richards “recited from a ladder”, and Robert Rauschenburg played music on an old wind- up phonograph. “A film played during the entire performance. A dog began to follow Cunningham and was accepted into the presentation.” The dog’s inclusion is an example of chance and found environment in the performance space (Kirby 1965, cited in Sandford 1995, p. 19). Cage’s presentation and concepts influenced

Allow Krapow15 studied with Cage16 from 1956 to 1958 at the New York School. Kirby states that the “material and structure of 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, resulted directly from this work” (Kirby 1965, cited in Sandford 1995, p. 24).

Allan Kraprow’s Happenings in 6 Parts was performed in 1959 as part of the American Happenings that developed in New York. Kirby states that “despite Kaprow’s initial protestations and the objections of the other artists, the media picked up on the title as a label for an emerging genre.” Not all participants in the movement referred to their work as Happenings. For Oldenburg it was Ray Gun Theatre, for Robert Whitman it was “theatre pieces” (Kirby 1965, cited in Sandford 1995, pp.