HPSCHD: Inside John Cage and Lejaren A. Hiller Jr.'s Radical Multimedia Collaboration: Music in American Life

In 1969, John Cage and Lejaren Hiller presented a multimedia performance that expanded the possibilities of what music and art could be. Harpsichords, computer-created tapes, films, and slides surrounded thousands of audience members while a fusion of randomness with technology gave each attendee their own unrepeatable experience.

Tiffany Funk explores how HPSCHD’s use of early computer art helped change ideas about sound, chance, and authorship. The event was less a concert than a performative system built through programming, labor, and shared decision-making. Computer art of the era required physical labor and collaboration. The impact of everything from punch cards to magnetic tape shaped the work while revealing the human effort involved. Throughout, Funk reveals that HPSCHD still offers valuable lessons about machines as collaborators rather than tools; the politics of technology; and the tension between the excitement and fears of automation.

An in-depth look at an avant-garde landmark, HPSCHD takes readers inside a legendary merger of music with computer art and its ongoing relevance in today’s digital world.