ISTD 2012
John Cage: 4'33''
John Cage: 4'33''
For my ISTD 2012 project I chose the brief about John Cage's musical composition called 4'33''. It is a composition that consists entirely of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence in which all the unintentional sounds made by the audience and their surroundings makes up the 'music' of the performance. The brief required me to do a typography focused project about my own 4'33'' performance.
For my project does the book become the performance. The sounds that the reader hear by interacting with the book provide the 'music'. In the bottom corner of each page is a piece of texture, which if the reader unintentionally turn the page at the bottom corner their interaction with the texture will add to the sounds they hear. The book consists of three parts, because Cage's composition was also divided into three acts. Each part requires a different interaction from the reader which provides a different sound. The nature of the sounds will depend on the way the reader interacts with it.
The 3 column grid that is used for the layout was set up out of the scale between the times of the 3 acts.
John Cage was greatly inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's exhibition of "White Paintings" which was completely blank paintings, with the art being the environmental changes that plays of on the canvas. Cage figured that the visual equivalent of silence must then be white space. Which is why there is much white space in the book.
At the bottom of each page is a time instead of a page number which indicates the time at which the reader will need to turn the page in order for the performance to be exactly 4'33''. the reader receives a stop watch (which was also used for Cage's performances) along with the book to time himself.
The 3 column grid that is used for the layout was set up out of the scale between the times of the 3 acts.
John Cage was greatly inspired by Robert Rauschenberg's exhibition of "White Paintings" which was completely blank paintings, with the art being the environmental changes that plays of on the canvas. Cage figured that the visual equivalent of silence must then be white space. Which is why there is much white space in the book.
Cage said that there is music in silence.
I believe him
I believe him
