John Cage's atlas eclipticalis: paving the way to anthropocentric processual creation

The bulk of artistic and philosophical discussion generated by our intellectual fascination with John Cage_s orchestral work Atlas Eclipticalis (1961_62) centres around its application of aleatoric processes such as the elements of chance and indeterminacy in the stages of composition and performance. That which underlies Cage_s advocacy for and championship of aleatoric explorations is his musical philosophy of nonintentionality. In his views, intentionality stood against genuine artistic expression, or rather, the true expression of the Self through music. This resistance against prevailing musical convention remains relevant in contemporary practices. However, we have often overlooked the role and implications of Cage_s employment of an arbitrary graphical source in the composition of Atlas. The use of a graphical source to determine musical parameters draws tantalisingly close to the creative notions behind graphical scores, graphical notation and musical imageries. Common to all of these notions is the relation between any given musical artefacts and any graphical representation or visual imageries they may invoke. Although the graphical elements of the star chart are static and held in place by fixed relations, Cage_s act of mapping them into musical elements eventuall y brought about the processual unfolding of musical events. What can be read from th e conception of Atlas is more than the concern about intentionality; it also extends a n inextricable link to process philosophy and phenomenology. Hence, in this work we fin d a unique converge nce of several li nes of creat ive inqu ir y _ the deploym ent of an analog ous graphical counterpart for producing the musical score, aleatoric devices, and the philosophical back-story of non-intentionality and beyond, in the act of music composit ion and performance. The utilisation of a graphical source from which the music is be ing _drawn_ out deserves particular attention relevant to the graphical or imager ial incarnation of music, as found in graphical scores. A dissection of the peculiar traits of graphical scores under the context of visual music leads one to speculate if music t hat more precisely operates on a tight correspondence between musical and visual eleme nts can be conceived, in order to give rise to anthropomorphic visual imageries in particul ar. There seems to be no lack of intellectual substantiation from evolutionary, musicologi cal and creative viewpoints in shoring up a compelling case for musical hermeneutics in terms of anthropocentric narratives. Furthermore, in some of the contemporary graphi cal scores compiled by Cage himself in Notations (196 9), we be gan to witn ess an impend ing inatio n o f anthropomorphi c images onto conventional musical staves, occupying an d sharing the role and status formerly belonging to standard musical notation. Supported b y technological advances, the musical score complex today extends to encompas s reconble score environments, live interactive music systems, and even mixed-media i mmersive installations, that allow for more substantial multimodal and philosophical creative engagement. The author sees that Cage_s artistic and philosophical quests embodied in the creation of Atlas 50 years ago inevitably pointed forward to a mode of musical composition and complex score environment that draws on the simultaneous processual constitution of musical entities along with anthropomorphic graphical elements.