John Cage

When I think of the I Ching, the age old Chinese method of a arriving at an answer to a question, I think of the magic 8 ball that we have all played with as kids. As I think of the 8 ball I remember my questions being complex; For example, "Should I ditch school and go over a friends house?" The 8 ball would respond saying, "Ask me later." I always seen the random consultation of the magic 8 ball as meaningless and I would disregard its answers, whether the answer is favorable or not, as rubbish. As I watch John Gage's work I could not help but feel like his reasoning for using the I Ching was to force spontaneity into an otherwise normal composition of music and art. However, the documentation through video, as well as the disorganized system created by using the I Ching gives his work more substance. In the piece where Gage and Marcel Duchamp's widower play chess was more interesting because it had the distraction of a person going up and down a later. More importantly, in the finished product there was a huge amount of random imperfect shots produced by using the old Chinese method of chance that it grabbed and kept my attention because I wanted to see what random frame would be next.

In the same way John Cage used chance to compose music and art Yvonne Rainer used the same random movements in her "Trio A" choreography. As a anti-art aesthetic Rainer seek to create movements in her dancing  that anyone can reproduce. Although her movements appear uncalculated, the fluidity and tempo of her movements gives the dance she performs grace and clarity.