ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ICP’s engagement with avant-garde music and performance art movements, including the work of John Cage, Situationism, the Mood Engineering Society, and Fluxus, as well as its relation to ludic countercultures such as Provo. It embeds these intersections in a broader discussion of the relation between avant-garde art and protest movements in the 1960s. Although these are frequently seen as belonging to a general trend, this chapter shows that there were significant disagreements between them. Crucially, these disagreements concerned the validity of avant-garde art as an emancipatory movement. The chapter argues that ultimately the primary influence of these movements was an aesthetic rather than a political one. It shows how the concept of instant composition was influenced by Fluxus event scores and Tomas Schmit’s Fluxus artworks, and describes what this meant for Misha Mengelberg’s understanding of improvisation and musical performance.
