“We must open our ears and eyes” : a philosophical lesson from the polymath Iannis Xenakis

Abstract

Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) was not only a composer, architect and mathematician. Reading his scores and his writings, Pierre Albert Castanet shows that it is possible to detect germs from the field of philosophy. Thus, sensitive to the art of sound rituals as well as to the virtues of art-science, Xenakis was the messenger of an ethical as well as aesthetic knowledge, carnal as well as spiritual. In this context, between "metamusic" and "polytopia", he went so far as to imagine works for sight and hearing.
 
 Keywords. Contemporary music, Metamusic, Polytopia, Philosophy, Culture, Works for the ears and the eyes.