Composing Cagean silence

Abstract

In this article I model John Cage's pragmatics of silence using the mathematics of category theory with the framework of ontological logs. I use this approach in order to represent knowledge within Cage's so-called silent compositions – 4 ′ 33 ′′ , 0 ′ 00 ′′ (4 ′ 33 ′′ No. 2), and One 3 = 4 ′ 33 ′′ (0 ′ 00 ′′ ) + . I first generate a categorical schema F and an accompanying database that describes an instance of 4 ′ 33 ′′ from its premiere in 1952 which is translated via two functors into the categorical schema Z (0 ′ 00 ′′ ) and O (One 3 ). A pushout of Z and O along F allows for the presentation of the categorical schema S and its accompanying ontological log as an enfolding of Cage's pragmatics of silence. I then introduce the score Listening to John Cage listening in order to conceptualize the category of instances S - S e t , and further utilize it to investigate the language of S through its fibre order. I conclude by reporting on persistent spatio-temporal structures of Cagean silence embodied in S as meta-work.