Over the past few months, I have explored 20th century new media by examining the works of several individuals from varying disciplines. I analyzed the writings of media ecologist Marshal Mcluhan, the video art of Bill Viola and the music of John Cage. I also looked at the work published by Rem Koolhaas and The Harvard Project On The City about architectural and urban mutations. This semester I took an interdisciplinary approach to new media studies by tying to familiarize and understand the work of experts and pioneers from four fields of personal interest. All of these sources have inspired me and influenced my studies. I have not only learned about new media but about the world and about myself.

According to McLuhan, all mediums can be classified as either "hot" or "cool". The main distinction between a hot or cold medium is the amount of information provided and the amount that is left for the audience to fill in. A hot, or high definition medium such as the radio or a film is dense in information and require less to be completed by viewer. A hot medium is low in participation, while a cool medium such as a cartoon or a telephone is high in participation, or required completion and therefore has a very different effect on the user. A telephone conversation for example, leaves much to be interpreted by the individual.

Another component of the documentary John Cage : The Works for Piano 7, looks at Cage's mysterious and celebrated painting Chess Pieces. The piece was purchased for one hundred dollars at a group show and until recently was being kept in private hands. Cage scholars had begun to doubt the pieces' existence. In this brief film, Margaret Leng Tan, along with a professor, analyze the sixty-four square chess board painting.

After the piece was tracked down and acquired, various individuals started to ponder whether the musical composition written on the board is in fact a playable piece. Chess Pieces was made in 1944; a very productive year musically and the year that Cage divorced his wife. The composition is in 2:2 time with no key signature or specified tempo. There isn't even an indication of a specific intended instrument. Meaning, the piece could be played with different instruments and even by two differnt musicians at the same time, since the two parts behave individually.

After being taught by Marcel Duchamp, Cage later became an avid chess player. This piece was perhaps the begining of his fascination with the game. The musical composition corresponds in many ways to a chess game. The composition is layed out over top of a duo tone grey chess board, with the notes in contrasting color--either black or white. Becuase little information is provided about the speed of the song, the lenght is open to the players interpretation. It is a fascinating creation. A piece that can be played, and or played on. When the piece was once again displayed, viewers were invited to witness the painting and hear the music at the same time.

In the first documentary on the DVD, John Cage : The Works for Piano 7, Margaret Leng Tan gives an in depth explaination of Cage's prepared piano technique. Tan was the first woman to graduate from the Julliard School with a doctorate in music. She worked with John Cage for the last eleven years of his life and today is hailed as the leading exponent of Cage’s music. The prepared piano technique involves inserting certain items between the strings on a piano in order to achieve unique sounds. Items such as pencil erasers and weather stripping can be used to mute a string or achieve a muffled sound, while screws and washers will produce certain percussive sounds. The sounds of Cage's prepared piano have been compared to that of a gamelan--an Indonesian ensemble of percussion tools. Margaret Leng Tan explains that the prepared piano technique originated from Cage's struggle to produce a wide array of sounds during a concert, but with a limited amount of space on the stage. In the documentary, Margaret Leng Tan spends the majority of the time demonstrating how one prepares a piano, noting Cage's meticulous instructions for how to do so. It takes almost the entire lenght of the film before the audience actually gets to hear the piano, but the final pay off is worth it. Cage succeeded; the piano preparations produce exquisite results.