John Cage's Forword:

"When I was invited to speak in January 1961 at the Evening School of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, I was told that the burning questions among the students there were: Where are we going? and What are we dolng? I took these questions as my subjects and, in order to compose the texts, made use of my Cartridge Music.

"The texts were written to be heard as four simultaneous lectures. But to print four lines of type simultaneously-that is, superimposed on one another- was a project unattractive in the present instance. The presentation here used has the effect of making the words legible-a dubious advantage, for I had wanted to say that our experiences, gotten as they are all at once, pass beyond our understanding.

"A part of the lecture has been printed, in a difJerent typographical arrangement, in Ring des Arts, Paris, summer 1961. The entire lecture has been recorded by C. F. Peters, New York, in the form of four single-track tapes (79 ips, forty-five minutes each). The following is a set of directions: Four independent lectures to be used in whole or in part-horizontally and vertically. The typed relation is not necessarily that of a performance. Twenty-five lines may be read in 1 minute, 1 and a quarter minutes, 1 and a half minutes, giving lectures roughly 37, 47, 57 minutes long respectively. Any other speech speed may be used.

"A performance must be given by a single lecturer. He may read "live" any one of the lectures. The "live" reading may be superimposed on the recorded readings. Or the whole may be recorded and delivered mechanically. Variations in amplitude may be made; for this purpose, use the score of my composition WBAI (also published by C. F. Peters).

"I was driving out to the country once with Carolyn and Earle Brown. We got to talking about Coomaraswamy's statement that the traditional function of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operation. This led me to the
opinion that art changes because science changes-that is, changes in science give artists different understandings of how nature works.

"A Phi Beta Kappa ran in the other day and said, "Your view is that art follows science, whereas Blake's view is that art is ahead of science."

"Right here you have it: Is man in control of nature or is he, as part of it, going along with it? To be perfectly honest with you, let me say I find nature far more interesting than any of man's control's of nature. This does not imply that I dislike humanity. I think that people are wonderful, and I think this because there are instances of people changing their minds. (I refer to individuals and to myself. )Not all of our past, but the parts of it we are taught, lead us to believe that we are in the driver's seat. With respect to nature. And that if we are not, life is meaningless. Well, the grand thing about the human mind is that it can turn its own tables and see meaninglesness as ultimate meaning.

"I have therefore made a lecture in the course of which, by various means, meaning is not easy to come by, even though lucidity has been my constant will-of-the-wisp. I have permitted myself to do this not out of disdain of you who are present. But out of regard for the way in which I understand nature operates. This view makes us all equals-even if among us are some unfortunates: whether lame, blind, stupid, schizoid, or poverty-stricken.

"Here we are. Let us say Yes to our presence together in Chaos".

John Cage