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Wire recordings of the Western Round Table on Modern Art. Photo: © J. John Priola and © Zack Sumner Schomp.


Wire Recordings WRT


Decade

1940s


Tags

Symposia



In 1949, the California School of Fine Arts (now SFAI) hosted the Western Round Table on Modern Art, a three-day symposium where artists, historians, composers, critics, and other academics discussed the state of art and its role in contemporary society. Kenneth Burke, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mark Tobey, Darius Milhaud, Gregory Bateson, and Marcel Duchamp participated, among others. Audio recordings of the proceedings are available through UbuWeb.


Slideshow ︎︎︎


These are the original wire recordings of the proceedings. Wire recordings were the precursors to audiotapes, which record onto magnetized tape instead of magnetized wire. Clockwise from top: George Boas (at the head of the table), Frank Lloyd Wright, Kenneth Burke, Marcel Duchamp, Alfred Frankenstein, Robert Goldwater (back to camera), Gregory Bateson, Mark Tobey, Alfred Ritchie, and Darius Milhaud (obscured). Mark Tobey discusses Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase. SFAI director Douglas MacAgy presides. Marcel Duchamp talks modern art with an unidentified companion, who looks suspiciously similar to one-time SFAI librarian Sharon Chickanzeff.


Secondary Connections