Music of the Mind

In 1966 and 1967, Yoko Ono put on several evening concerts under the title Music of the Mind. Among other things, they included the performances Fly Piece, Bag Piece and Fog Machine, in which Ono had herself enveloped in fog and covered with gauze by the audience. The title reflects Ono’s concept of silent music that, by means of her epigrammatic Instructions, but also in the concerts, was to produce sound in the listeners’ imagination. In her text To the Wesleyan People (1966), Ono explained this concept in greater detail: When a violinist plays, which is incidental: the arm movement or the bow sound? […] I think of my music more as a practice (gyo) than a music. The only sound that exists to me is the sound of the mind. My works are only to induce music of the mind in people. Insound as inclusion of real noises and instructure as the never completed execution of instructions are essential elements of this practice, which sees itself as a continual process of transmission.



 

Workdetails
  • original Title: Music of the Mind
  • Date: 1966 – 1967
  • Genre: Series of works

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