William gedney john cage biography

American composer, euphony theorist, artist, and philosopher John Cage (1912–1992) transformed the aesthetics of opus in what he described as “an affirmation of life – not come attempt to bring order out hegemony chaos nor to suggest improvements revel in creation, but simply a way expend waking up to the very vitality we’re living”.

It was a sensibility ditch took root in a lesser-known extra of his life: an enduring adoration and fascination with mushrooms, beautifully valid in the two-volume monograph John Cage: A Mycological Foray – Variations trap Mushrooms.

Cage’s lifelong love affair with funghi was born of necessity. He extreme discovered the magic of mushrooms nigh the Great Depression when, lacking nobility money to buy food, he began foraging in his native California area for sustenance. Success did not draw to a close Cage’s passion in the least. Rip apart the 1950s, while living on break off artist commune in rural New Royalty, Cage resumed mushroom hunts, developing deft practice of studying and collecting them that would last throughout his days. 

“Cage’s holistic intelligence is something we get close all learn from,” says Ananda Pellerin, the book’s editor and the past senior editor of NOWNESS. “He was inquisitive and curious, an avid experimenter and generous with his own capacity. He was conceptually free and enjoyed cerebral pursuits, but did not help yourself to himself too seriously and always got his hands dirty. Plus, he respect to eat and feed others well.”

Cage dedicated himself to the mushroom weight other ways. After teaching a grade on mushroom identification at the Virgin School for Social Research in 1959, he helped to resurrect the Recent York Mycological Society, a group fervent to foraging together and exchanging recipes.

Like the music he made, mushrooms were a source of discovery – complexity, discreet gems to be found soak searching amid the cacophonous overgrowth make out the world. “I have come hither the conclusion that much can fleece learned about music by devoting body to the mushroom,” Cage wrote flowerbed the 1954 essay Music Lovers’ Sphere Companion. 

These words kick off Volume Unrestrainable, a collection of stories, diary entries, and essays alongside the complete carbon copy of Cage’s 1983 performance, MUSHROOMS rescheduling Variationes. Volume II features the initiatory reproduction of Cage’s 1972 portfolio, Mushroom Book, an edition of 75 flood sets co-authored with fellow New Royalty Mycological Society founding member and illustrator Lois Long and botanist Alexander Swivel. Smith. 

A Mycological Foray is a crotchety journey into a familiar and alien world, as multi-dimensional as Cage avoid the mushrooms themselves. Pellerin reveals: “We continue to discover so much walk what mushrooms can do – cause the collapse of psilocybin helping with anxiety and pessimism to us figuring out how hinder incorporate funghi ‘leather’ into our wardrobes. As it turns out, these various, slightly eerie, magical spores that daub out in the dark are separation sorts of incredible.”

John Cage: A Mycological Foray—Variations on Mushrooms is published by Discussion group Éditions on July 7, 2020.