218 performance as art
So the idea that serves as the artistic vehicle of a conceptual work is not to be
identified with the work’s artistic content. It is, rather, the means whereby
that content is articulated. Second, if an idea is to serve as an artistic vehicle,
then it must articulate the content of a work in the distinctive manner sketched
in Chapter 1. Appreciation of a conceptual work requires that the idea be sub-
jected to the kind of interrogative attention whereby we determine any art-
work’s artistic content. So, for example, it may be significant to reflect on
what the idea exemplifies, to scrutinize in careful detail how the idea is
embodied in what the artist does or prescribes, or to explore how it performs
a number of hierarchically related roles in relation to the overall point of the
work.
- For more on the problems that arise in constructing what I have termed an
“identifying narrative,” see D. Davies 2007b. - I draw here on the booklet for an exhibition including this piece at the Duke
Street Gallery, London, 2001. - Andrew Kania (2010) argues, against Davies, that Cage’s piece does qualify as
organized sound. But Kania also argues that it fails to be music because it does
not satisfy a further necessary condition for being music, namely, being
intended to either have some basic musical feature, such as pitch or rhythm,
or to be listened to for such features.