Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2009), Montreal, Canada August 16-21, 2009 SILVER APPLES, ELECTRIC CIRCUS, ELECTRONIC ARTS, AND COMMERCE IN LATE 1960s NEW YORK Robert J. Gluck Department of Music, University at Albany
[email protected] ABSTRACT Greenwich Village, home to both New York University and the East Coast’s major psychedelic culture. New York It has often been a challenge to secure adequate financial was also at the center of a nexus of creative endeavors and institutional support to present electro-acoustic music including Fluxus, Alan Kaprow's "Happenings," in appropriate physical spaces, with sufficient staffing and Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), the free jazz technical infrastructure. A handful of unusual of Ornette Coleman and others, and the musicians and opportunities arose in the late 1960s for partnerships artists associated with the Merce Cunningham Dance between a business and artists. One of these was the Company, John Cage, David Tudor, David Behrman, Electric Circus, a discothèque in New York City, based Gordon Mumma. One manifestation of Subotnick’s arrival upon an artistic conception by electronic composer Morton in New York was the Electric Circus, a new multi-sensory Subotnick in collaboration with visual artist Tony Martin. venue that provided a testing ground for the question of This paper explores the dynamics between artistic and whether creative Art and commercial interests could commercial values at the Electric Circus and in a series of coexist in a manner that is mutually beneficial. new music venues that ensued. It also offers as a counter While it is beyond the scope of this presentation, example the highly non-commercial activity that flowed it is worth noting that one of E.A.T.’s endeavors, the Pepsi from Subotnick’s open access studio housed at New York Pavilion at the1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, University, sparking the careers of a group of young addressed parallel issues.