Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits

In "Experimental Otherwise", Benjamin Piekut takes the reader into the heart of what we mean by 'experimental' in avant-garde music. Focusing on one place and time - New York City, 1964 - Piekut examines five disparate events: the New York Philharmonic's disastrous performance of John Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis; Henry Flynt's demonstrations against the downtown avant-garde; Charlotte Moorman's Avant Garde Festival; the founding of the Jazz Composers Guild; and, the emergence of Iggy Pop. Drawing together a colorful array of personalities, Piekut argues that each of these examples points to a failure and marks a limit or boundary of canonical experimentalism. What emerges from these marginal moments is an accurate picture of the avant-garde, not as a style or genre, but as a network defined by disagreements, struggles, and exclusions.