avant-gardist.

I really love the avant-gard. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Give me freaky Gareth Pugh and conceptual Rei Kawakubo any day. This extends to books, architecture and music as well. So i was very inspired when i learnt about John Cage and his musical piece 4'33. I really love how Cage brings anarchism, desires and mythology into his music.

4'33 is a composition that lasts 4 minutes and 33 seconds, without a single sound being played. While this might seem abit silly at first (i mean 4 minutes of silence?) the deeper concept is that the human and environmental-people shuffling, breathing, floors creaking etc are a part of, and indeed IS the music. So in that way, the blank canvas isn't blank at all but it is a composition that is always changing.John Cage leaves the physical/audible aspects of his piece to chance or chaos-he control is in the concept. Thus audiences have to look at and think about music in an entirely different way.

That's a great example of what i love about the avant-garde. The constant challenging of how I percieve the world and my interactions with it. I think it's as close to the ethereal as Socrates or Plato would describe.