John Cage's 'HPSCHD' at Eyebeam

This past Friday, I stopped by Eyebeam in Chelsea and paid a visit to the performance of HPSCHD, composer John Cage's Gesamtkunstwerk created in collaboration with electronic composer Lejaren Hiller. Debuted in 1969, the piece is a mixed-media amalgamation of visuals and sounds far removed from classical sonatas and serenades. To the new listener, Cage's work can sound confusing and overwhelming (HPSCHD is often said to be the wildest, loudest musical composition of the last century), and the performance at Eyebeam translates this with a totally immersive experience of movement, sound, and color. Western classical music is intermingled with discordant electrical noises while the floor, walls, and ceiling act as canvases for film and video projections of NASA footage and outer space. Cage trumpets freedom and allows his audiences to move around the performance, sit, and decide what to experience and when. Of course, from every angle, my eyes and ears were bombarded by everything!

Photos by Christine Hahn