11.7 Intermedia

Intermedia emerged in the 1960s as artists sought to break down boundaries between traditional art forms. This movement combined elements from various disciplines, creating immersive and participatory experiences that challenged conventional artistic categories.

Key figures like John Cage and Dick Higgins played pivotal roles in developing intermedia. Their work emphasized chance, indeterminacy, and audience participation, laying the groundwork for a new approach to artistic expression that blurred lines between different media.

Origins of intermedia

• Intermedia emerged in the 1960s as a result of artists seeking to break down the boundaries between traditional art forms and explore new modes of creative expression
• The term "intermedia" was coined by Dick Higgins in 1966 to describe works that fall between established media categories and combine elements from various disciplines
• Intermedia developed as a response to the limitations of traditional art forms and the desire to create more immersive, participatory, and interdisciplinary experiences for audiences

Key figures in intermedia

John Cage's influence

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  This is How You Perform a Piece of Music 1,000 Years Long — Blog of the Long Now View original

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  John Cage - Wikipedia View original

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  John Cage's 4'33" | angela n. | Flickr View original

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Top images from around the web for John Cage's influence

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  John Cage's 4'33" | angela n. | Flickr View original

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  This is How You Perform a Piece of Music 1,000 Years Long — Blog of the Long Now View original

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  John Cage - Wikipedia View original

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  John Cage's 4'33" | angela n. | Flickr View original

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  This is How You Perform a Piece of Music 1,000 Years Long — Blog of the Long Now View original

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• John Cage, an American composer and artist, played a pivotal role in the development of intermedia through his experimental approach to music and performance
• Cage's "happenings," which incorporated elements of chance, indeterminacy, and audience participation, laid the groundwork for intermedia by challenging conventional notions of artistic control and authorship
• His collaborations with artists from various disciplines, such as Merce Cunningham (dance) and Robert Rauschenberg (visual art), demonstrated the potential for cross-disciplinary experimentation and exchange

Dick Higgins' contributions

• Dick Higgins, a co-founder of the Fluxus movement, was instrumental in defining and promoting intermedia as a distinct artistic practice
• Higgins' essay "Intermedia" (1966) provided a theoretical framework for understanding works that transcend traditional media boundaries and emphasize the interconnectedness of art forms
• As a practitioner, Higgins created numerous intermedia works, such as "Danger Music" series (1962), which blended elements of performance, poetry, and visual art

Defining characteristics of intermedia

Blurring of artistic boundaries

• Intermedia works deliberately blur the lines between different artistic disciplines, such as visual art, music, theater, and literature
• By combining elements from multiple media, intermedia artists seek to create new forms of expression that cannot be easily categorized within traditional art genres
• This blurring of boundaries challenges viewers to reconsider their preconceptions about what constitutes art and encourages a more open-ended, interdisciplinary approach to creative practice

Fusion of multiple media

• Intermedia works often involve the fusion of two or more distinct media, creating a synthesis that generates new meanings and experiences
• For example, an intermedia piece might combine elements of sculpture, sound, and video to create an immersive, multi-sensory environment
• This fusion of media allows artists to explore the interplay between different modes of perception and communication, and to create works that engage audiences on multiple levels

Intermedia vs multimedia

• While intermedia and multimedia both involve the combination of multiple media, they differ in their fundamental approach and intent
• Multimedia refers to the use of multiple media formats (text, images, audio, video) to convey information or tell a story, often in a linear or predetermined sequence
• In contrast, intermedia emphasizes the integration and interaction between different media elements, creating a more fluid, open-ended, and participatory experience for the audience
• Intermedia works often blur the boundaries between art and life, inviting viewers to become active participants in the creative process rather than passive consumers of content

Notable intermedia works

Fluxus performances

• Fluxus, an international network of artists, composers, and designers, was a key platform for intermedia experimentation in the 1960s and 1970s
• Fluxus performances often involved the fusion of music, visual art, and theater, with an emphasis on chance, humor, and audience participation
• Examples include George Brecht's "Event Scores" (1959-1962), which provided instructions for simple, open-ended actions to be performed by participants, and Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" (1964), in which the artist invited audience members to cut away pieces of her clothing

Happenings by Allan Kaprow

• Allan Kaprow, an American artist and theorist, is widely regarded as a pioneer of intermedia through his development of "happenings" in the late 1950s and 1960s
• Happenings were loosely structured, improvisational events that blurred the boundaries between art and life, often taking place in non-traditional settings such as warehouses, city streets, or natural environments
• Kaprow's happenings, such as "18 Happenings in 6 Parts" (1959) and "Fluids" (1967), emphasized the ephemeral, participatory nature of art and challenged traditional notions of authorship and spectatorship

Impact on contemporary art

Influence on installation art

• Intermedia has had a significant impact on the development of installation art, which involves the creation of immersive, site-specific environments that engage viewers on multiple sensory and conceptual levels
• Many contemporary installation artists, such as Olafur Eliasson and Pipilotti Rist, draw on the legacy of intermedia by incorporating elements of sound, video, performance, and audience participation into their works
• The emphasis on the viewer's experience and the blurring of boundaries between art and life in intermedia has informed the experiential and interactive nature of much contemporary installation art

Legacy in digital art practices

• The interdisciplinary and experimental spirit of intermedia has also had a profound influence on the development of digital art practices
• Digital technologies have enabled artists to create new forms of intermedia that blend elements of visual art, music, video, and interactivity in unprecedented ways
• Examples include net art, which uses the internet as a medium for creative expression, and virtual reality installations that immerse viewers in computer-generated environments
• The emphasis on interactivity, participation, and the fusion of multiple media in intermedia has laid the groundwork for many contemporary digital art practices

Critiques and controversies

Questions of artistic merit

• Intermedia has sometimes been criticized for its perceived lack of artistic rigor or depth, with some critics arguing that the emphasis on experimentation and boundary-crossing comes at the expense of substantive content or technical skill
• However, proponents of intermedia argue that the value of these works lies precisely in their ability to challenge established notions of artistic merit and to open up new possibilities for creative expression and audience engagement
• The debates surrounding the artistic merit of intermedia reflect broader tensions within the art world between tradition and innovation, form and content, and the role of the artist in society

Challenges to traditional art forms

• Intermedia poses a challenge to traditional art forms by blurring the boundaries between disciplines and questioning the very definition of what constitutes art
• Some critics have argued that intermedia represents a threat to the integrity and autonomy of individual art forms, such as painting or sculpture, by undermining their specific histories, techniques, and aesthetic criteria
• However, advocates of intermedia see this challenge as a necessary and productive one, arguing that it helps to revitalize and expand the possibilities of artistic expression in response to changing social, cultural, and technological contexts

Relationship to other avant-garde movements

Connections to conceptual art

• Intermedia shares many key concerns and strategies with conceptual art, which emerged in the 1960s and prioritized ideas and concepts over traditional artistic materials and techniques
• Both intermedia and conceptual art challenge the primacy of the art object and emphasize the role of the viewer in constructing meaning and experience
• Many intermedia works, such as those by Fluxus artists, have a strong conceptual dimension, using language, instructions, and other forms of documentation to convey ideas and generate audience participation

Parallels with performance art

• Intermedia also has close ties to performance art, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a means of exploring the body, time, and space as artistic media
• Many intermedia works, such as happenings and Fluxus events, have a strong performative dimension, involving live actions, audience participation, and an emphasis on the ephemeral and unrepeatable nature of the artistic experience
• Both intermedia and performance art challenge traditional notions of artistic authorship and spectatorship, blurring the boundaries between art and life and inviting viewers to become active participants in the creative process