16 Apr 2014

Direct contact with ephemerality


The nature of listening is the experience of hearing something and then realizing that you’re no longer hearing it and that you’re hearing something else. This is part and parcel of hearing. When you look at a painting, you don’t have the impression that the painting is disappearing. But as you listen to sounds, you have the impression that they’re gone, and that others have taken their place. And you’re brought right by paying attention to events in time. All you need to see is [that] you’re brought into direct contact with ephemerality.

John Cage, Every Day is a Good Day: The Visual Art of John Cage (Hayward Publishing, 2010) p. 66

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