Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 3: Analog Era (1950s)
1958
Fontana Mix, John Cage

This landmark, hugely influence piece of chance music consists of a graphic score of transparent sheets the performer superimposes to derive a realisation. Cage remains the composer most willing to explore “chance operations” in the composition and performance of music.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.
Sources
People
Movements
Chance Art, generative art, Generative Music
Filed under
- Ideas
- chance, Chance Art, chance operations, generative art, Generative Music, graphic notation, indeterminacy, music, notation, performance
- People
- John Cage
- Works
- Fontana Mix
Echoes across time
- 1971 · Kenneth Martin, Chance and Order V, 1971-2
- 1757 · Johann Philipp Kirnberger’s Musical Dice Game
- 1972 · Surface Substitution on 36 Plates by Jennifer Bartlett
Le Random editorials
- Mario Klingemann & A.I.C.C.A. on Alien Perspective, Peter Bauman, March 10, 2025
- Inside qubibi’s Shinjuku Studio, Peter Bauman, December 18, 2024
- Gendering Systems, Vienna Kim, August 15, 2024
- Mona Lisa to monogrid, Peter Bauman, March 6, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Transcript mentions John Cage. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 3—Analog Era (1950s) with Georg Bak — listen with transcript on Le Random (10 Aug 2023, 65 min). Transcript mentions John Cage. Chapter 3’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 9—AI Era (2010s) with Tyler Hobbs, Helena Sarin, Rhea Myers & Gene Kogan — listen with transcript on Le Random (30 Jul 2024, 51 min). Transcript mentions John Cage. Apple Podcasts · Spotify