UbuWeb heeft een ongelooflijk archief over avant-garde. Natuurlijk is Cage rijkelijk vertegenwoordigd.
This rare documentary, simply called “John Cage”, was made in 1966 for the German TV station NDR and is one of the earliest films devoted entirely to the work of Cage and his collaborators. It was made on the occasion of the Cage and Cunningham European tour in that year, and instead of fully explaining the music and philosophy of the composer, we get a fascinating glimpse at the work process of the dance troupe and of Cage himself. Most of the film is concerned with showing us how they set up a performance for the Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, and there is a lot of interview and everyday material with Cage, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma and Carolyn Brown, to name just the best known artists here. It’s also nice to see a rather youthful looking Cage (though he was 54 at the time!), still wearing the famous tie that had been cut off by Nam June Paik a few years earlier. There’s also some archival footage from Tudor’s and Cage’s very first German performance in Darmstadt in 1954.
Note: as this was a German production, the explanatory voice-over is in German. Sometimes the words of the interviewees are thus made inaudible; however this only happens occasionally, and most of the English language parts are left intact, so that you can still follow most of what is said by Cage and the others even if you don’t speak German.
bron: John Cage 1912-1992, http://ubu.com/film/cage_wildenhahn.html
Variations
The legendary work that premiered at New York’s Philharmonic Hall in 1965. This recording was from a german performance taped for television broadcast the next year. I’m listing John Cage as the director, since he’s the mastermind here, but if you know Cage, you understand what a misnomer this is. “Collaborative” doesn’t get the half of it: you’ve got Stan VanDerBeek’s films, Nam June Paik’s video, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma and John Cage on various tape machines rigged up by Robert Moog and Billy Kluver, Merce Cunningham and company doing movement, actual video here is somebody named Arne Arnbom, but don’t know if editing was supervised by VanDerBeek, may have been. The video quality is poor, I’ve tried to preserve what little there was by not compressing too much – sound is great though. Full 50 min, including a 5 min opening commentary in german without subtitles
John Cage made «Variations V» in 1965 for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He 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. Ten photocells were wired to activate tape-recorders and short-wave radios. Cecil Coker designed a control circuit, which was built by my assistant Witt Wittnebert. Film footage by Stan VanDerBeek and Nam June Paik’s manipulated television images were projected on screens behind the dancers.
The score was created by flipping coins to determine each element and consisted of thirty-five «remarks» outlining the structure, components, and methodology. The specific sound score would change at each performance as it was created by radio antennas responding to the dancers’ movements.
The photocells were located at the base of the five-foot antennas placed around the stage. Cage, Tudor, and Gordon Mumma operate equipment to modify and determine the final sounds.
bron: http://ubu.com/film/cage_variations5.html
Although Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage never actually meet in this film (Cage’s enigmatic questions about sound are intercut with some of Kirk’s more ambitious experiments with it) these two very different musical iconoclasts share a similar vision of the boundless possibilities of music. Kirk plays three saxes at once, switches to flute, incorporates tapes of birds played backwards, and finally hands out whistles to his audience and encourages them to accompany him, “in the key of W, if you please.” Cage, on the other hand, is preparing a work for musical bicycle with David Tudor and Merce Cunningham at the Seville Theatre in London. Cage meets Rahsaan’s music in an echo chamber, and he ends his search for the sound of silence in his favorite spot — the anechoic chamber — where it turns out to be the uproar of “your nervous system in operation.” — Martin Williams, JAZZ TIMES
bron: http://ubu.com/film/cage_kirk.html
Fluxus is schatplichtig aan John Cage.
Directed by Peter Greenaway
Robert Ashley
John Cage
Philip Glass
Peter Gordon …. Himself (segment “Ashley”)
Jack Kripl …. Intereviewee
Jill Kroesen …. (segment “Ashley”)
Meredith Monk
Kurt Munkacsi …. Interviewee
Dora Ohrenstein …. Interviewee
Michael Riesman …. Interviewee
‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny …. The World’s Greatest Piano Player (segment “Ashley”)
David Van Tieghem …. The Captain of the Football Team (segment Ashley)
bron: http://ubu.com/film/greenaway_cage.html
Thirty Second Spots: TV Commercials for Arists – John Cage (1982-83)
30 Second Spots
Joan Logue in collaboration with the artists.
1982, color, sound
Inverting the form, style and time frame of commercial television advertising, Logue has produced a unique series of dynamic video portraits of avant-garde artists, writers, musicians and performers. In 30 Second Spots: New York, which Logue terms “commercials for artists,” each of the succinct vignettes conveys the artistic essence of her subject with clarity, wit, and an elegant economy of means. John Cage, John Cage, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Spalding Gray and Nam June Paik are among the artists who are captured here with concise drama. Each subject performs in close-up before a stationary camera; Logue heightens this intimate theater with a precise application of subtle electronic effects. Steve Reich’s hands are seen in close-up as he claps out a syncopated rhythm; a dance gesture by Arnie Zane and Bill T. Jones is transformed into a sequence of color and texture; John Cage’s face fills the screen as she knocks on her amplified head with unexpected resonance. EAI
———————–
This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI’s 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.
bron: http://ubu.com/film/logue_cage.html