VARIATIONS VII
JOHN CAGE
Performance engineer: Cecil Coker

VEHICULE
LUCINDA CHILDS
Performance engineer: Peter Hirsch

KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE
ÖYVIND FAHLSTRÖM
Performance engineer: Harold Hodges

GRASS FIELD
ALEX HAY
Performance engineer: Bob Kieronski

SOLO
DEBORAH HAY
Performance engineers: Larry Heilos and Witt Wittnebert

PHYSICAL THINGS
STEVE PAXTON
Performance engineer: Dick Wolff

CARRIAGE DISCRETENESS
YVONNE RAINER
Performance engineer: Per Biorn

OPEN SCORE
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
Performance engineer: Jim McGee

BANDONEON! (A COMBINE)
DAVID TUDOR
Performance engineer: Fred Waldhauer

TWO HOLES OF WATER – 3
ROBERT WHITMAN
Performance engineer: Robby Robison

For a description and an historical overview of the performances, detailed specifications on the main technical components, photographs, films and analysis of the performance diagrams, see Clarisse Bardiot web publication 9 Evenings: Theater and Engineering on The Daniel Langlois Foundation web site.
fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=571

October 13, 1966

Alex Hay, Grass Field
Deborah Hay, Solo
Steve Paxton, Physical Things

October 14, 1966

Robert Rauschenberg, Open Score
David Tudor, Bandoneon! (a combine)

October 15, 1966

John Cage, Variations VII
Yvonne Rainer, Carriage Discreteness

October 16, 1966

John Cage, Variations VII
Lucinda Childs, Vehicule

October 18, 1966

David Tudor, Bandoneon! (a combine)
Robert Whitman, Two Holes of Water – 3

October 19, 1966

Steve Paxton, Physical Things
Robert Whitman, Two Holes of Water – 3

October 21, 1966

Öyvind Fahlström, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
Yvonne Rainer, Carriage Discreteness

October 22, 1966

Öyvind Fahlström, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
Alex Hay, Grass Field

October 23, 1966

Lucinda Childs, Vehicule
Deborah Hay, Solo
Robert Rauschenberg, Open Score

For a description and an historical overview of the performances, detailed specifications on the main technical components, photographs, films and analysis of the performance diagrams, see Clarisse Bardiot web publication 9 Evenings: Theater and Engineering on The Daniel Langlois Foundation web site.
fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=571

John Cage
1912, Los Angeles (Calif., U.S.) – 1992, New York (N.Y., U.S.)
From 1934 to 1937, John Cage studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg in California. Upon his arrival in New York in 1942, he abandoned dodecaphony to develop his own compositional techniques inspired by Asian philosophy (Taoism, Zen Buddhism) and based on indeterminacy (chance). In the late 1940’s, Cage explored the acoustic possibilities of what he called the prepared piano (a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings.) In the 1950’s, he participated in the summer program at Black Mountain College (Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.) and taught at the New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y., U.S.). It was during this period that he began a multi-year collaboration with the musician and composer David Tudor. In the 1960’s Cage frequently integrated electronic sounds, ambient noises, and random fragments of radio broadcasts in his compositions. Works from this period, often created with representatives of other disciplines, such as Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg, also highlight the theatrical elements of musical performance. This experimental phase reached its peak in 1969 with HPSCHD (written in collaboration with Lejaren Hiller) presented at the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois, US) and featuring several overlapping visual and audio tracks (7 harpsichords, 51 computer-generated audio tapes, and abstract films). In the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s, Cage returned to composing conventional scores, but he still frequently employed the techniques developed in the 40’s and 50’s.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1846

Lucinda Childs
1940, New York (N.Y., U.S.); lives in Paris (France)
In the early 1960s, Lucinda Childs studied dance with Merce Cunningham and Robert Dunn and in 1962 was a founding member of the Judson Dance Theatre. Like her contemporaries, Childs sought to blur the stark line separating dancers from non-dancers. In Street Dance (1964), a work that aptly reflected the period, the choreographer had spectators view her performing from windows overlooking a street. When she founded the Lucinda Childs Dance Company in 1973, her performances were marked by a limited series of movements. Because these movements were repeated in differing configurations and speeds, they isolated and showcased the body of each dancer. The danced segments Childs created for the opera Einstein on the Beach, by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (1976), were a direct result of this research. It was from this point onward that music began to play a pivotal role in her works. Prior to 1976, her choreographies were without musical accompaniment. For example, Dance (1979) interlaced the repetitive structure of Philip Glass’s score with recurring movements. Sol Lewitt created the stark set décor and film that complemented the work. Childs continued her collaborations with Frank Gehry and John Adams (Available Light, 1983) and Robert Mapplethorpe and Michael Nyman (Portraits in Reflection, 1985). In addition to the repertoire developed for her own company, Childs choreographed works for numerous ballet companies (Les Ballets de l’Opéra de Paris, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de l’Opéra de Lyon, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Geneva Opera Ballet, etc.) In 1992, she began directing both classical and contemporary opera productions. In 2004, Childs was named Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur by the French government.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1847

Öyvind Fahlström
1928, Sao Paolo (Brazil) – 1976, Stockholm (Sweden)
Born in Sao Paolo to Scandinavian parents, Öyvind Fahlström spent a portion of his adult life in Sweden. Between 1949 and 1952 he studied art history and classical studies at the University of Stockholm and worked as a journalist. After a two-year stay in Paris (1956-1959), he moved to New York in 1961. It was during this era that he began to integrate comic strip and mass media elements into his artwork. It was also at this time that he introduced three-dimensional components into his works, often presenting playful scenarios that encouraged spectator involvement in the exhibitions. Beginning in 1962, he created numerous “happenings,” most of which were presented at the Moderna Museet. These included Aida (1962), Ur Mellanöl 1 and 2, and Fahlströms Hörna (1964). In 1965, he wrote Hammarskjöld om Gud, a play directed by Bröderna Strindberg and Soren Brunes. Brunes also collaborated with Fahlström on Kisses Sweeter than Wine (1966, as part of 9 Evenings). In 1966, Fahlström exhibited his work in the Swedish pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In addition to his visual, theatrical, and literary works, he directed a number of films (Mao-Hope March (1966), U-Barn, East Village, Revolution Now (1968), Du gamla du fria (1971)) and radio plays (Fåglar i Sverige (1963), Den helige Torsten Nilsson (1966), Cellen, collage for radio (1972)). In 1979, the Moderna Museet launched a posthumous travelling retrospective of his work, which closed at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France) in 1981.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1849

Alex Hay
1930, Brandon (Florida, U.S.); lives in Bisbee (Arizona, U.S.)
In his 1960’s paintings and sculptures, Alex Hay depicted the formal properties of everyday objects. His works where a cross between minimalism, hyperrealism, and Pop Art. During that same period he worked as an assistant to Robert Rauschenberg and created stage designs for the choreographic works of Merce Cunningham. After 1963, Hay performed with the Judson Church Theater. In 1969, he left New York and moved to the small mining town of Bisbee, (Arizona, U.S.), where he distanced himself from the world of art. Although he participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2004, his work after 1969 has rarely been seen.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1851

Deborah Hay
1941, Brooklyn (N.Y., U.S.); lives in Austin (Texas, U.S.)
In the early 1960’s, Deborah Hay trained with Mia Slavenska and Merce Cunningham. In 1964, she participated in an international tour with the Cunningham Dance Company. She then joined the Judson Dance Theater as performer and choreographer. Along with her collaborators, she attempted to blur the line traditionally separating trained and untrained dancers. In 1970, she left New York to live in a community in Vermont. During this period, her works were no longer presented to the public but designed only for those performing. The observations she made during annual group workshops were distilled into solo dances, now Hay’s preferred type of choreography. In 2000, she nevertheless choreographed a duet for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov, which toured with the Past/Forward project (a series of performances updating the choreographic scores of the Judson Group Theatre, among others). From time to time, Hay also creates new group choreographies (including “O,O” in 2006), based on the reinterpretation of her solo dances by several different performers.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1851

Steve Paxton
1933, Phoenix (Arizona, U.S.); lives in Newport, (Vermont, U.S.)
In the early 1960’s, Steve Paxton was a dancer with the Jose Limon company. From 1961 to 1965, he performed in several works by Merce Cunningham. In 1962, Paxton became one of the founding members of the Judson Dance Theatre. Like his collaborators, he attempted to break down the traditional barriers between dancers and non-dancers. Following this period of joint creation with the members of the Judson Dance Theatre, he developed the technique of contact improvisation. With this method, dancers are continuously interacting with each other to create a series of movements. It has influenced many choreographers and is widely used as a teaching tool. Since the late 1970’s, Paxton has largely left the performance world, devoting himself primarily to training workshops and writing. He nevertheless still delivers some improvised solo performances and collaborates with choreographers, composers, and artists, including Robert Ashley, Trisha Brown, Boris Charmatz, Kathy Duck, Lisa Nelson, and Vera Mantero.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1860

Yvonne Rainer
1934, San Francisco (California, U.S.); lives in Los Angeles (California, U.S.)
After spending her childhood and adolescence in San Francisco, Yvonne Rainer moved to New York in 1956. Between 1959 and 1960, she studied dance at the Martha Graham School, while learning ballet at Ballet Arts. In the early 1960s, she participated in Ann Halprin’s workshops and studiously attended classes by Merce Cunningham, where she met a number of her future collaborators. In 1962, she became a founding member of the Judson Dance Theatre. Much like other choreographers of her era, Rainer sought to blur the stark line separating dancers from non-dancers. Inspired by John Cage’s indeterminacy notions, she created her performances according to a series of generic tasks that integrated day-to-day gestures into a dance vocabulary (walking, running, lifting, etc.). Rainer created many of the best-known works produced by the Judson, including We Shall Run (1963), Terrain (1963) and Part of a Sextet (1964).

While creating At My Body’s House (1963), she asked engineers Billy Klüver and Harold Hodges to modify miniature radio transmitters to amplify the sounds of her breathing. In 1966, she premiered Trio A, the first section of her work The Mind is a Muscle. This sequence prohibits the dancers from looking at the audience while performing an uninterrupted series of complex movements. Trio A later became an independent work and was performed by Rainer and a number of other artists. Although she had integrated projected images into her performance environments since the mid 1960s, Rainer wrote and directed her first medium length film, Lives of Performers, in 1972. In 1975, she began to focus primarily on making medium and full-length films, in which she reinvested narrative codes. Her films then took a distinctly feminist turn, exploring such themes as terrorism (Journeys from Berlin/1971, 1980), social exclusion (Privilege, 1990) and illness (MURDER and murder, 1996). Between 2000 and 2006, she returned to choreography and created two new works: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (2000), a group performance commissioned by the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, and AG Indexical, With a Little Help From H.M. (2006). Rainer taught in the Whitney Independent Program from 1974 onward, and since 2005 she has been emeritus professor at the University of California, Irvine (Irvine, California, U.S.).
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1870

Robert Rauschenberg
1925, Port Arthur, (Texas, U.S); lives in Captiva (Florida, U.S.)
In 1947, Robert Rauschenberg studied at the Académie Julian, in Paris, before returning to the United States the following year to pursue his studies at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, with painter Joseph Albers (1948-49). There, he also formed friendships with John Cage and David Tudor. He then moved to New York City, where he attended the Art Student League from 1949 to 1951. In the second half of that decade, he created the series of “combines” works, building a bridge between abstract expressionism and the Pop-art movement. Along with his pictorial work, Rauschenberg designed costumes and sets for many choreographers (including Merce Cunningham). In the 1960’s, his activities became even more diversified, and he joined the Judson Dance Theatre — first as set designer, then as choreographer. During the same period, Rauschenberg experimented with the use of electronics in his art (Oracle, 1962-65, Soundings, Solstice, 1968, Mud Muse, 1968-71). These works incorporated the technical expertise of engineers Per Biorn, Billy Klüver, and Robby Robinson, who were then working at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.). In 1966, after his participation in 9 Evenings, he co-founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with Billy Klüver, Fred Waldhauer, and the artist Robert Whitman. This non-profit organization aimed to promote cooperation between scientists, artists, and engineers on projects involving players from each of those sectors. In the 1970’s, Rauschenberg concentrated primarily on lithography. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, he devoted his attention, through his Foundation, to philanthropic activities, offering financial assistance to artists, protecting the environment, and fighting poverty. Since his first retrospective at the Jewish Museum in 1961, his work has been featured in many individual exhibitions in both the United States and Europe.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1861

David Tudor
1926, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, U.S.) – 1996, Tomkins Cove (N.Y., U.S.)
As a child, Tudor studied the piano, and in 1942, he passed the exam to become a member of the American Guild of Organists. Between 1945 and 1947, he was organist for the Trinity Church in Swarthmore (Pennsylvania, U.S.), after which he studied piano with Irma Wolpe. Her husband, composer Stepan Wolpe, began to train Tudor on a more modern repertoire for the piano. As a concert pianist, Tudor performed in numerous recitals, primarily in New York (N.Y., U.S.), and interpreted for the first time many works by composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and Christian Wolff. Together with these artists, most notably John Cage, Tudor developed musical notation methods based on indeterminacy and an atypical use of instruments. Between 1951 and 1953, he participated in a summer course at Black Mountain College (Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.) and taught from time to time (1956, 1958, 1959, 1961) at the Internationale Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik (Darmstadt, Germany). From 1953 onward, he often interpreted works by John Cage for the Merce Cunningham Company (following the death of Cage in 1992, Tudor became musical director for the company). In the latter half of the 1960s, he gradually abandoned his career as a pianist to focus exclusively on electronic compositions. During this period, he wrote two pieces that featured technological components activated by the performer, during Bandoneon! (a combine), presented as part of 9 Evenings in 1966, and Rainforest (1968). In 1970, Tudor designed the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka with many other E.A.T. members, including Robert Breer. In 1973, he formed the group Composers Inside Electronics, which allowed composers to play electronic works for which they themselves had built the circuitry. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Tudor continued to collaborate with John Cage, Jackie Matisse, Lowell Cross, Molly Davies, Viola Farber, Anthony Martin, Robert Rauschenberg and Sophia Ogielska.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1864

Robert Whitman
1935, New York (N.Y., U.S.); lives in Warwick (N.Y., U.S.)
Between 1953 and 1957, Robert Whitman completed a degree in English literature at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey (New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.), and studied art history at Columbia University (New York, N.Y., U.S.). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he constructed sculptural environments much like those created by Allan Kaprow and George Segal. In 1960, he produced his first “theatre piece,” Small Cannon. Unlike the often-improvised “happenings” of the day, these works by Whitman were precisely defined and could therefore be performed more than once. They were presented as a series of sketches that often included the audience as participants and in which the narrative was kept to a strict minimum. Beginning in 1964, Whitman began to create installations that linked objects (furniture, accessories) with related film clips (Window, Dining Room Table (1963), Shower (1964), Dressing Table, Bathroom Sink (1964)). Next, he began to include film projections in his own performances, such as Prune Flat (1965) and Two Holes of Water 3 (1966, as part of 9 Evenings). In November 1966, he founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with engineers Billy Klüver, Fred Waldhauer and Robert Rauschenberg. In the latter half of the 1960s, Whitman explored the optical effects produced by combining convex/concave mirrors, lasers and light projections. In 1970, he designed the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka with the other members of E.A.T. He also conducted numerous projects involving engineers and scientists (Art and Technology, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1971), Artists and Television (1971-1972), Artists and Radio (1972). In the decades that followed, he continued his performative work, often using telecommunication technology to include a participative dimension (Ghost (2002), for example). In 2003, the Dia Foundation (New York, N.Y., U.S.) presented a retrospective exhibition of Whitman’s works.
Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=1867

Per Biorn
1937, Copenhagen (Denmark); lives in Gainesville (Florida, U.S.)
After completing his military service, Per Biorn studied electrical engineering, then emigrated to the United States in 1962. He began working for Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) in 1964, focusing primarily on solid-state circuit research. For 9 Evenings, Biorn designed the technological components controlling various elements (projectors, objects, lights) for Carriage Discreteness by Yvonne Rainer. In addition, he developed some of the TEEM decoders and helped design the Ground Effect Machine used in Vehicle by Lucinda Childs. As an engineer participating in Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), Biorn was asked by Martha Minujin to design the interactive elements of her installation Minuphone (1967). As part of another E.A.T. collaboration (with Ralph Flynn and Robby Robinson), he developed the light and sound modulation system used by Carolee Schneeman in her performance Snows (1967). In 1968, Biorn built some of the interactive elements of the Soundings and Solstice installations (1968) by Robert Rauschenberg. During the 1990’s, he restored these works and occasionally fine-tuned the technology for the artist retrospectives. In 1970, Biorn built several components for the sound dispersion system in the Pepsi Pavilion designed by E.A.T. for the Osaka World Exposition held that year. Since 1966, Biorn has also worked with Lillian Schwartz (1968), Merce Cunningham (1969), Jean Toche (1970), Julius Tobias (1972), Trisha Brown (1986), Lillian Ball (1991, 1993), Irina Nakhova (1994), Robert Whitman (1995), Nina Sobell (2001), and Marjorie Gamso (2002).

Cecil H. Coker
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Cecil H. Coker focused primarily on researching articulatory speech synthesis. In 1973, (in collaboration with Noriko Umeda and Cathrine Browman) he developed one of the first software programs converting machine-readable text into speech (text-to-speech system). His discoveries played a key role in later technological advances in this field. For John Cage’s Variations V (1965), Coker designed photoelectric cells to provide lighting and randomly triggered sounds. The following year, he developed the integrated sound system for Robert Rauschenberg’s Linoleum. For 9 Evenings, he collaborated once again with Cage to integrate the photoelectric cells with the other technological components of Variations VII. Coker also made a substantial contribution to the development of the TEEM system and proposed the idea of the Proportional Control System (designed by Fred Waldhauer). Cecil H. Coker still works as an engineer with the Acoustic Research Department of AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories (formerly Bell Telephone Laboratories).

Ralph Flynn
At the Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Ralph Flynn focused primarily on researching the amplification of electrical signals (high-speed repeaters). For 9 Evenings, he helped Fred Waldhauer build the Proportional Control System and developed some of the TEEM components. In 1967, Flynn joined Per Biorn and Robby Robinson to create the light and sound modulation system used by Carolee Schneeman in her performance Snows (1967). He also worked on Solstice (1968) by Robert Rauschenberg.

Larry Heilos
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Larry Heilos focused primarily on laser research. For 9 Evenings, he designed the remote-control carts used by Deborah Hay in Solo. Heilos also tested the closed-circuit infrared video system used to capture images in the dark for Robert Rauschenberg’s Open Score.

Peter Hirsch
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Peter Hirsch focused primarily on researching underwater sound output and radar technologies. For 9 Evenings, he built and tested the Doppler sonar used in Lucinda Childs’s performance, Vehicle.

Harold Hodges
Harold Hodges began his career as a clockmaker. During the 1960s, while at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.), he focused mainly on laser research. In 1960, together with Billy Klüver, he developed a number of mechanical components for Hommage à New York. Jean Tinguely’s self-destructing sculpture presented in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y., U.S.). He also helped Robert Rauschenberg create his sound sculpture Oracle (1962-1965). In 1965, he once again helped Klüver construct the helium-filled balloons used by Andy Warhol in his work Silver Clouds (1965-1966). For 9 Evenings, Hodges designed the “anti-missile missile,” a remote controlled balloon for Kisses Sweeter than Wine by Oyvind Fahlström. He also built the soap bubble generator used in this performance to give the impression of snowflakes falling upside down.

William Kaminski
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, William (Bill) Kaminski focused mainly on research into wireless radio transmission. For 9 Evenings, he designed transmitters to broadcast the sounds emitted when tennis balls hit the racquets in Open Score by Robert Rauschenberg.

Robert V. Kieronski
1941, Newport (Rhode Island, U.S.); lives in Newport
In 1963, Robert Kieronski earned a B.A. in electrical engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Penn., U.S.) and joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) the same year. At that time, his research focused primarily on digital information processing systems. In 1967, he earned a master’s degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology (Castle Point, N.J., U.S.). In the mid 1960’s, he designed the Vochrome — a device producing an electronic signal (audio or visual) from analog audio input (musical instrument, voice). Kieronski placed this instrument at the disposal of David Tudor for his performance Bandoneon! (a combine). He also contributed to the construction of the system used by Alex Hay to amplify biological data in Grass Field. Kieronski left Bell Laboratories in 1967 and soon began researching the optical translation of electronic signals with artist and author Jack Burnham. He then joined Arp Instruments, Inc., where he built prototypes for the Arp 21000 synthesizer. His involvement with artists did not end, however, for he co-founded the Art and Technology Group Inc. in Boston in the 1970’s. In 1974, he worked as an engineer in the laboratories of the United States Navy. Although his research in the plastic arts has extended over several decades, his efforts since 1997 have largely focused on the design of computer-driven kinetic light installations.

Billy Klüver
1927, Monaco (Principality of Monaco) – 2004, Berkeley Heights (N.J., United States)
Billy Klüver was born in 1927 to Swedish and Norwegian parents. In 1951, he earned an electrical engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. During the 1950s, he was appointed president of the Stockholm University Film Society and was cofounder of the Swedish Alliance of Film Societies. During a stay in Paris (1952-1953), where he was a research assistant at Thompson-Houston, Klüver met Swiss artist Jean Tinguely through childhood friend Pontus Hultén (who was director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden). In 1953, Klüver immigrated to the United States, where he earned a PhD in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (Calif., United States), in 1957. The following year, he joined the engineers in the Communication and Research Department at Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., United States). It was also at this time that he made connections with a group of New York artists, a community whose members represented the avant-garde across all artistic disciplines (John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Merce Cunningham). An increasingly important witness to the era, he participated in a number of “happenings,” including those of Claes Oldenburg. In 1960, Klüver designed the mechanical components and oversaw the functioning of Hommage à New York, Jean Tinguely’s self-destructing sculpture presented in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y., United States). In the early 1960s, Klüver curated two exhibitions at the Moderna Museet: Art in Motion (1961) and Four Americans: Alfred Leslie, Richard Stankiewicz, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (1962). A short time after the Hommage à New York presentation, Rauschenberg asked Klüver to develop the technological components of his sound sculpture Oracle (1962-1965). During this time, Klüver also built wireless neon tubes for the sculptures Field Painting (1963) and Zone (1966) by Jasper Johns. He then went on to modify miniature radio transmitters to allow choreographer Yvonne Rainer to amplify the sounds of her breathing in At My Body’s House (1964). In 1965, together with Harold Hodges, an engineer and colleague at Bell Laboratories, he created the floating, helium-filled balloons used by Andy Warhol in his work Silver Clouds (1965-1966). For Variations V (1965) by John Cage, Klüver (along with Cecil Coker) created photoelectric cells that randomly triggered various sound and light events. In 1965, Klüver sought the expertise of engineers at Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., United States) in order to produce a series of events that would bring together avant-garde theatre, dance and new technology. Initially planned as part of a festival in Stockholm, Klüver presented 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering at the 69th Regiment Armory (New York, N.Y., United States) from October 13 to 23, 1966. In November of the same year, he founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with Fred Waldhauer, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. The mandate of this non-profit organization, which was active primarily in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, was to create projects that would rally individuals from the arts, science and industry sectors around projects representing all three of these disciplines. In 1968, Klüver left Bell Telephone Laboratories to focus exclusively on E.A.T., where he became CEO. For more information on E.A.T. projects conducted by Klüver, please refer to the Collection of Documents Published by Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). From the early 1960s onwards, Klüver published numerous articles on his collaborations with artists and his views of technology as a catalyst for social change. He also wrote (with Julie Martin) Kiki’s Paris: Artists and Lovers, 1900 — 1930, a monograph on Alice Prin, or “Kiki de Montparnasse,” and A Day with Picasso, a book that recounts a day in the life of a number of Parisian artists, including Picasso and Max Jacob, told through a series of photographs taken by Jean Cocteau. In 2002, Klüver was made Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur in France.

Jim McGee
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Jim McGee focused mainly on research into holograms. For 9 Evenings, he designed the program drums used by many artists, and he configured the tape recorders to allow them to continuously play the pre-recorded soundtrack for Physical Things by Steve Paxton.

Robby Robinson
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Robby Robinson focused primarily on researching cellular telephony. For 9 Evenings, he built several TEEM components (amplifiers and decoders). In 1968, he was asked by Robert Rauschenberg to design a device used in Soundings (1968) to modulate light sources in accordance with audio levels. He also installed the automatic sliding doors in Rauschenberg’s work Solstice, presented at Documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968.

Herb Schneider
1922 Vienna (Austria) –
Herb Schneider studied in Bebek, Turkey, and the U.S. He joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) while still a university student. Schneider spent close to 42 years with the company, where he focused primarily on research into wireless broadcasting. For 9 Evenings, he acted as an intermediary among the participants (engineers and artists) during the creation of the performances. After extensive discussions with each of the artists in September 1966, he translated their ideas into diagrams, in a technical language the engineers would understand (these diagrams were reproduced in the 9 Evenings program). Schneider also suggested using AMP Equipment, a command console that linked the technological components used on stage to one another.

Fred Waldhauer
1927-1993
Fred Waldhauer earned an engineering degree from Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.) and a master’s degree from Columbia University (New York, N.Y., U.S.). He initially worked as an engineer at RCA and in 1953 joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.). While at Bell, he participated in the development of one of the first commercial digital sound transmission systems (T1 PCM). In 1961, together with engineer Billy Klüver and artist Herbert Gesner, he constructed light machines for a performance by musician and composer Leroy (Sam) Parkins at the Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden). For 9 Evenings, he created the Proportional Control System (P.C.S.) used by David Tudor in Bandoneon! (a combine). This interface was comprised of a plotting board, 16 receivers and an electronic pen to allow numerous components in the Armory to be remotely controlled. Notably, Tudor used the device to spatialize the sound tracks and adjust the volume from one speaker to another. In November 1966, Waldhauer founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with Billy Klüver, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. The mandate of this non-profit organization, which was active primarily in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, was to create projects that would rally individuals from the arts, science and industry sectors around projects representing all three of these disciplines. Waldhauer helped Robert Rauschenberg integrate interactive components into his work Soundings (1968). For descriptions of projects conducted by the Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers as part of E.A.T., please refer to the finding aids in the Collection of Documents Published by Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).

In 1970, Waldhauer collaborated once again with Tudor to help him create the sound system for the Pepsi Pavilion, designed by E.A.T. for Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. In 1969, he (together with artist Forrest Myers) sent a number of works of art into space by miniaturizing (on 40 ceramic chips) drawings by various artists (Andy Warhol, Clase Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, and John Chamberlain). In fact, one of these works accompanied Apollo 12 on its lunar mission. The other chips would eventually become part of private or museum collections, including that of MOMA (New York, N.Y., U.S.). In addition to his digital telecommunications research at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Waldhauer developed technological components for hearing aids, which led to major advances in this field in the decades that followed. During his career, he held 18 patents and published a number of technical papers and a book (Feedback, Wiley, 1982).

Martin Wazowicz
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Martin Wazowicz focused primarily on microwave research. For 9 Evenings, he built and tested the amplifiers used to transmit biological data (the brain’s alpha waves, muscle movements) in the form of sounds in Alex’s Hay’s Grass Field.

Witt Wittnebert
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Witt Witnebert focused mainly on research into lasers. He helped Cecil Coker design the photocells used by John Cage in Variations V (1965). For 9 Evenings, he constructed preamplifiers for a number of performances and assembled the electronic components for the mobile platforms used by Deborah Hay in Solo.

Dick Wolff
At Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J., U.S.) during the 1960’s, Dick Wolff focused mainly on research into superconductors. For 9 Evenings, he designed the radio broadcast system used in Physical Thingsby Steve Paxton.

Vincent Bonin, Archivist/Researcher, Daniel Langlois Foundation
© 2006 FDL
Source: fondation-langlois.org

Clarisse Bardiot, “The Diagrams of 9 Evenings”, 9 Evenings Reconsidered: Art, Theatre and Engineering, 1966. Cambridge : MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2006, 45-53.

In her essay, Clarisse Bardiot examines the technical diagrams produced for the ten performances by the engineer Herb Schneider and published in 9 Evenings program. The analysis of the diagrams contributes to a further understanding of the works and of the collaboration process between artists and engineers. This essay is part of an important research project on 9 Evenings diagrams conducted at The Daniel Langlois Foundation. For more information on this project, see Clarisse Bardiot web publication 9 Evenings: Theater and Engineering on The Daniel Langlois Foundation web site.
fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=571

EXCERPTS

“The various texts and testimonials that documents 9 Evenings demonstrate the extent to which dialogue between artists and engineers was not simply a matter of course. Artists frequently had the impression that the engineers had assumed too much control over the artwork and that their preoccupation with technical matters threatened to constrain the aesthetic impact of the performances. For their part, engineers found that the artists did not have a realistic understanding of the technical complexities of their ideas. (…) The real challenge was not so much in developing new working practices, but in finding a common language that would allow the artists and engineers to communicate effectively. Ultimately the diagrams allowed them to establish a common ground.” (p. 46.)

“The diagrams of the performances of 9 Evenings were a turning point in the development of the festival. They were first and foremost the tool that allowed artists and engineers to communicate with one another. The diagrams were, moreover, the source of a radical technological innovation. In fact, even if computer technology is not an appropriate term here, these diagrams, and the use of AMP equipment that they required, demonstrate that the engineers and artists involved in 9 Evenings utilized some of the fundamental principles and logic of computer science: programming, data storing, shifts between one media form and another, random logic, combinatorics, etc. In this sense, the event anticipated the impact of computer technology on performance art. The interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and engineers, the wireless remote control system, and the generation of sound by choreographed movement continue to be developed in current performance art, especially that which incorporates digital technology, 9 Evenings thus represents one of the most important precursor of this movement.” (p. 51.)

Michelle Kuo, “9 Evenings in Reverse”, 9 Evenings Reconsidered: Art, Theatre and Engineering, 1966. Cambridge: MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2006, 31-39.
In her essay, Michelle Kuo considers the negative reception of 9 Evenings in order to explain how that critical failure reveals a transformation of conventions in American avant-garde performance. Kuo argues that the use of technological components reframed the performative aesthetic of indeterminacy and chance as risk.

EXCERPTS

“9 Evenings forced signature devices of chance, participation, and abstraction to confront the fully technocratic world around them. Indeterminacy translated into technological breakdown. Machine behavior trumped compositional scores. Audience and performer interaction became increasingly mediated. The structural inversion of these tactics represented not simply an end, then, but a transformation: 9 Evenings inaugurated a shift in the meaning of key postwar aesthetic strategies – and offered a way through and beyond their technological arbitration.” (p. 31.)

“Technical and sensory breakdown thus gave an answer to the question of indeterminacy’s fate. Once a liberatory escape from an administered world, chance and choice were now tools of commodification and instrumentality. On the one hand, individuated experience was being thoroughly colonized by advertising and niche marketing. On the other, technological failure was integral to the logic of planned obsolescence and the turnover rate of technological innovation. The enormously generative aesthetic of indeterminacy and multiplicity that Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and members of Fluxus had established in the 1950s – early 1960s could therefore no longer be deployed to the same ends.” (p. 32.)

“If the art of the sixties has only recently been re-examined in terms of the proliferation of “theatricalitry” beyond the Minimalist object, 9 Evenings is still too often seen as a collapse of the early aims of Cage, Happenings and Fluxus into the realm of culture industry, into press hype and high price tags. Nineteen sixty-six is billed as the year of Happening’s demise into commodification through reproduction and documentation. The year as also served to mark the end of Rauschenberg’s utopian project for revolutionized subjectivity. Yet 9 Evenings does not simply represent an implosion of earlier ideals. Quite the contrary: it revealed that those ideals and strategies confronted a different world.” (p. 39.)

Exhibition Catalogue

Morris, Catherine, ed. 9 Evenings Reconsidered : Art, Theatre and Engineering, 1966. Cambridge : MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2006.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Banes, Sally. Democracy’s Body: Judson Dance Theater: 1962-1964. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993.

Benthall, Jonathan. Science and Technology in Art Today. London: Thames & Hudson, 1972.

Bijvoet, Marga. Art as Inquiry. Toward New Collaborations Between Art, Science, and Technology. New York: Peter Lang, 1997.

Birringer, Johannes. Media & Performance : Along the Border. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Burnham, Jack. Beyond Modern Sculpture. The Effects of Science and Technology on the Sculpture of this Century. New York: George Braziller, 1968.

Burt, Ramsay. The Judson Dance Theater: Performative Traces. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Childs, Lucinda. “Lucinda Childs : A Portfolio.” Art Forum, vol. 11, no. 6 (February 1973): 50-56.

Cooke, Lynne, Kelly, Karen and Bettina Funcke, eds. Robert Whitman : Playback. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2003.

Davis, Douglas. Art and the Future. A History/Prophecy of the Collaboration Between Science, Technology, and Art. New York: Praeger, 1973.

Davis, Douglas. “Art and Technology : The New Combine.” Art in America, vol. 56, no. 1 (January-February 1968): 28-47.

Fetterman, William. John Cage’s Theater Pieces Notations and Performance. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996.

Gabrys, Jennifer. “Machine Fall Apart : Failure in Art and Technology.” Leonardo Electronic Almanac, vol. 13, no. 4 (April 2005).

Gabrys, Jennifer. Residue in the E.A.T. Archives. Residual Mechanisms. Web publication: Daniel Langlois Foundation, 2004.
fondation-langlois.org/html/f/page.php?NumPage=522

Garwood, Deborah. “The Future of an Idea. 9 Evenings Forty Years Later.” PAJ : Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 29, no. 1 (2007): 36-48.

Hertz, Garnet. “An Interview with Billy Klüver.” in Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, eds. Explorations in Art and Technology. London: Springer-Verlag, 2002, 8-11.

Hultén, Pontus and Björn Springfeldt, eds. Fahlström, Öyvind : catalogue d’exposition. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1980.

Hultén, Pontus and Frank Königsberg, eds. 9 Evenings: Theater and Engineering. New York: Experiments in Art and Technology, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, 1966.

Hultén, Pontus, ed. The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968.

Kirby, Michael. The Art of Time : Essays on the Avant-Gardes. New York: Dutton, 1969.

Klüver, Billy and Julie Martin. E.A.T. – The Story of E.A.T. Experiments in Art and Technology 1960-2001. Tokyo: NTT Inter Communication Center, 2003.

Klüver, Billy. “The Great Northeastern Power Failure.” Lecture given at the College Art Association annual meeting, January 28, 1966. Printed in Randall Packer and Ken Jordan, eds. Multimedia : From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001, 33-38.

Klüver, Billy. Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). Archive of Published Documents. Web publication: Daniel Langlois Foundation, 2000.
fondation-langlois.org/html/f/page.php?NumPage=306

Klüver, Billy and Julie Martin. “Working with Rauschenberg.” in Robert Rauschenberg : A Retrospective. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1997, 310-327.

Klüver, Billy and Julie Martin. “Four Collaborations.” in Robert Rauschenberg : Haywire : Major Technological Works of the 1960’s. Ostfildern-Ruit: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1997, 59-101.

Klüver, Billy. “Artists, Engineers, and Collaboration.” in Gretchen Bender and Timothy Druckrey, eds. Culture on the Brink : Ideologies of Technology. Seattle: Bay Press, 1994, 207-219.

Klüver, Billy. E.A.T. Bibliography : August 12, 1965 – January 18, 1980. Berkeley: Experiments in Art and Technology, 1980.

Klüver, Billy, Martin, Julie and Barbara Rose, eds. Pavillon. New York: Dutton, Experiments in Art and Technology, 1972.

Klüver, Billy. “Theater and Engineering : An Experiment. Notes by an Engineer.” Art Forum, vol. 5, no. 6 (February 1967): 31-33.

Kostelanetz, Richard. The Theatre of Mixed Means: An Introduction to Happenings, Kinetic Environments, and Other Mixed-Means Performances. New York: Dial Press, 1968.

Lacerte, Sylvie, 9 Evenings and Experiments in Art and Technology: A Gap to Fill in Art History’s Recent Chronicles. Web Publication: Daniel Langlois Foundation.
fondation-langlois.org/html/f/page.php?NumPage=1716

Lacerte, Sylvie. E.A.T., Experiments in Art Technology. Web Publication: Sylvie Lacerte and Leonardo/Olats, June 2002.
olats.org/pionniers/pp/eat/eat.php

Loewen, Norma. Experiments in Art and Technology : A Descriptive History of the Organisation. New York: New York University, 1975.

Rainer, Yvonne. Radical Juxtaposition : 1961-2002. Philadelphia: The University of the Arts, 2003.

Rainer, Yvonne. Works 1961-1973. Halifax: Press of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974.

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Nick Montfort, eds. “Four Selections by Experiments in Art and Technology.” in The New Media Reader. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2003, 211-227.

Whitman, Simone. “Theater and Engineering : An Experiment. Notes by a Participant.” Art Forum, vol. 5, no. 6 (February 1967): 26-30