Concept Art       IAAA  
    

Impossible, undefined, unstable
and unusually difficult pieces

Non-pieces

The instructions for this piece are on the other side of this sheet.
  
Henry Flynt, January 1961.
(Two sides of instruction sheet.)
To perform this piece
do not perform it.
Tony Conrad, Summer 1961

[Cf. Jon Hendricks: Fluxus Codex. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection. New York, 1988, p.330.]

Paradoxical pieces

The instructions for this piece are on the other side of this sheet.
The instructions for this piece are on the other side of this sheet.
Henry Flynt, January 1961.
(Two sides of instruction sheet.)
To perform this piece
do not perform it.
Tony Conrad, Summer 1961

[Cf. Jon Hendricks: Fluxus Codex. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection. New York, 1988, p.330.]

Undefined pieces




Each point on this line is a composition.

Henry Flynt, January 1961


This is the piece that is any piece.

Tony Conrad, Summer 1961

Opera Instruction

Do and/or don't do something universally.

Eric Andersen, 1961

Changing pieces

Opera Instruction

The frequency a'''' is played as a violin frequency for 30 seconds at intensity pp. Each year which passes after the first of April 1962 involves that the duration for which the frequency is played is lengthened by 5 seconds.

Eric Andersen, 1961


Dick Higgins: Difficult Pieces

Danger Music Number Nine

(for Nam June Paik)

Volunteer to have your spine removed.

February 1962

Danger Music Number Eleven

(for George)

Change your mind repeatedly in a lyrical manner about Roman Catholicism.

February 1962

 

Danger Music Number Twelve

Write a thousand symphonies.

March l962

Danger Music
Number Thirty-Two

(for George Maciunas)

Do not abide by your decision.

April 1, 1963

   


Literature on Paradox and Circularity


Peter Aczel: Non-Well-Founded Sets. CSLI Lecture Notes, Number 14. Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information, 1988.

Jon Barwise and John Etchemendy. The Liar: An Essay on Truth and Circularity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Jon Barwise and Lawrence S. Moss: Vicious Circles. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1996.

Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gšdel, Escher, Bach. An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

Patrick Hughes and George Brecht: Vicious Circles and Infinity. A Panoply of Paradoxes. London: Jonathan Cape, 1975.