Abstract- Nine Moments: Initiations in the Discourse and Practices of Art and Technology

The introduction to Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus begins with both an excerpt from the score of Cage's Piano piece for David Tudor and a note on their own collaboration: "Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd," echoing Cage's own remark to Alfon Schilling regarding the now famous series of performances, Nine Evenings: "you see what we're involved in here … is not work which involves one person but work which involves many." This conjunction reveals much about the ways in which the art and technology movement of the 60's and 70's has influenced the development of poststructuralism, new media theory and the techno-cultural discourses that surround human- computer interaction. It also highlights the importance of sound, sound art and new music in providing a supportive 'atmosphere' within which new media technologies, artistic practices, reflections on posthumanism and cyberculture and art criticism could develop. This paper and corresponding interactive web project looks at nine moments in Nine Evenings, within the context of an emerging technoculture spearheaded by artists interested in technology, corporations interested in culture and a society grappling with the cumulative effects of the rapid technological development that characterizes modernity.