John Cage: asking questions

David Tudor (left) and John Cage performing at the 1971 Shiraz Art Festival. Photo: courtesy Cunningham Dance Foundation archive, via Wikipedia

By Carlos A. Inada / From São Paulo / Via Yvonne Senouf

The Philip Johnson Glass House, on its program Glass House Conversations — an online public dialogue moderated by leaders from across the creative disciplines of architecture, art, design, landscape architecture and preservation — is hosting a conversation based on a statement by John Cage and on a question asked by Paul Soulellis, facilitator of the discussion:

I gave up making choices. I’ve merely changed my responsibility from making choices to asking questions. It’s not easy to ask questions. — John Cage

From the Glass House Conversations’ website:

2012 marks the centennial of the birth of John Cage, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a headliner in the first Glass House happening (1967) with The Velvet Underground and Merce Cunningham.

For 50 years, Cage developed an approach to music, art and design involving “chance operations” — a shift in the creative process from taste and judgement to highly disciplined questioning. Cage’s removal of his judgement from decision-making brings up critical questions about the role of the ego in creativity, suggesting that a more open acknowledgement of ambiguity and uncertainty — even failure — in design might be valuable.

Is ego a critical component of success in today’s design world? Is design humility possible?

The conversation is open to comments until Sunday, February 19 — and it’s a great opportunity to engage in a public discussion about John Cage’s legacy, mainly for architects and designers, the main public of The Philip Johnson Glass House.

Personally, I’d like to learn more about the path that led from Cage’s statement to Soulellis’ question — mainly his emphasis on the notions of “ego” and “design humility”, which probably reflect an interest and a theme of research for Soulellis. Besides confirming Cage’s statement that “it’s not easy to ask questions”, this seems to express shared concerns we’ve been facing in our projects at Dharma/Arte:

What do we mean when we refer to “ego”?

To which extent a criticism of the ego is helpful to artists and creators? To which extent it only reinforces the ego, making one too self-conscious about what one does?

To which extent most critical approaches, as they propose what we “need” to do, what we “need” to give up etc., are reinforcing a “negative” approach to creativity, based on what we supposedly lack, and not on what we are able to share?

Asking questions seems to have to do more with openness than with restrictions; with letting go of preconceived ideas that give us control and finding ways to allow processes to unfold by themselves, not because of some moral imperative (as suggested by the pair “ego” × “humility”), but in search of a truer connection with whatever happens.

Please leave your comments, and participate in the Glass House Conversations’ discussion.

Read also: “Here Comes Everybody: two conversations with John Cage”, on D/A Magazine

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