Eco

After reading some of the essays, I find myself investigating the author, the influences such as people on the writer regarding the essay, and the current events of the time and the environment of the place it was written. Although making more work for myself, it seemingly helps me to flesh out more about writing but it can sometimes be like opening Pandora’s Box or worse.

Pondering the selection from Umberto’s Eco’s essay Open Work (1962) made me investigate Eco, post WWII Italy, Marxism, Italian aesthetician Benedetto Croce, and the rapid industrialization and economic growth in 1960’s Italy. Eco’s interest in medieval aesthetics led him to respond against Croce’s views. I also imagine living through the terrors of war in one’s home country and then experiencing the rapid growth and rebuilding which were taking place in post WWII Italy would have an influence upon reflection. He writes about the role indeterminancy plays in the cognitive process and the principle of ambiguity and chance and eventually this brings to my mind John Cage’s famous musical composition 4’33”. Eco’s essay in this book begins with musical examples and I suppose thats why my mind came back to Cage. Made in 1952, Cage’s work, which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of Cage sitting at the piano (or even an entire orchestra) with the composition piece in front of him, would be different each time “performed” due to the audience noises and ambient sounds of the concert hall. And this leads me back to what Eco wrote, “In short, it installs a new relationship between the contemplation and the utilization of a work of art.” ...”an ‘open’ situation, in movement. A work in progress."

4'33"
http://www.ubu.com/film/cage_433.html