Alison Knowles’s “Bean Rolls”: The influence of mycological and aesthetic discussions with John Cage on early women’s Fluxus aesthetics

Alison Knowles is regarded as one of the first female artists in Fluxus. She is well known for her books and hand-made paper objects. But to her, dried beans were also an important artistic material, which she used for many years, because of their sound effect, haptic quality, and socio-cultural connotations. Alison Knowles’s first multiple “Bean rolls” is used as a representative example from which to elaborate on the special role of Fluxus aesthetics in her work. The influence of John Cage on Fluxus in general is well known. But it has not yet been researched specifically in relation to Knowles, her work with beans, and the sound aspects for these artworks. Knowles’s choice of beans as an art material will be also analysed from the perspective of image science with comparisons to other works from Baroque to Pop art. Special emphasis will be placed on the emancipatory attitude behind Knowles’s art.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Viola Rühse

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 1-7

Affiliations

[0001]Danube University Krems

Department for Image Science

Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Str. 30, 3500

Krems - Austria

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.1

SO-VID: 0f341783-91a3-4e2d-9a76-0a3f494a042c

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

History

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.1

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

K. Albala 2007 Beans. A History Oxford/New York Berg
American Women: Report of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women 1963 Washington For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US Govt. Print. Off
G. Brecht 1966 Chance-Imagery New York Something Else Press
A. Burghardt 2013 Sammelleidenschaft: Historische Kochbücher Die Presse (Schaufenster) 29 May https://diepresse.com/home/schaufenster/gourmet/1412682/Sammelleidenschaft_HistorischeKochbuecher 22 August 2019
J. CageH. Cowell 1939 1961 Goal: New Music, New Dance J. Silence. Cage Middletown Wesleyan University Press 87f
J. Cage 1958 1961 Indeterminacy J. Silence. Cage Middletown Wesleyan University Press 260 274
J. Cage 1969 Notations New York Something Else Press
G. Casale 1996 Gli incanti dell’Iride: Giovanna Garzoni pittrice nel Seicento Cinisello Balsamo Silvana Ed
M. Delville 2008 Food, Poetry, and the Aesthetics of Consumption: Eating the Avant-garde New York Routledge
M. Dumett 2017 Corporate Imaginations: Fluxus Strategies for Living Oakland University of California Press
S. Ebert-Schifferer 2011 Annibale Carraccis ‘Bohnenesser’. Revolution als Nebenprodukt U. PfistererG. Wimböck “Novità”. Neuheitskonzepte in den Bildkünsten um 1600 Zurich Diaphanes 111 131
E. Enid Nemy 1975 Knockoffs: Sincerest Form of Flattery The New York Times 15 June 52
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E. E. Goodman 2016 Feeding Feminism: Food and Gender Ideology in American Women’s Art, 1960-1979 PhD diss. University of California San Diego
H. B. Higgins 2010 Love’s Labor’s Lost and Found: A Meditation on Fluxus, Family, and Somethings Else Art Journal 69 1/2 SpringSummer 8 22
H. B. Hannah B. Higgins 2012 An Introduction to Alison Knowles’s “The House of Dust” D. Kahn Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Computing and the Foundations of the Digital Arts Berkeley University of California Press 195 199
N. Ickeringill 1960 Food News: Dilly Beans Make Good The New York Times 4 March 1960 17
D. Kahn 1990 The Latest: Fluxus and Music E. ArmstrongJ. Rothfuss In the Spirit of Fluxus Minneapolis Walker Art Center 100121
A. Knowles 1965 Simultaneous Bean Reading Autumn 1964 Alison Knowles New York Something Else Press (#12)
A. Knowles 1995 Interview with Gustavo Matamoros SUBTROPICS https://subtropics.org/wpcontent/uploads/2008/11/FTNK-alison-knowlesfrijoles1.mp3 20 August 2019
A. Knowles 2000 Footnotes New York Granary Books
S. Lovegren 2007 Historical Overview: World War II to the Early 1960s A. F. Smith The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink Oxford / New York Oxford University Press 292293
A. Lowenhaupt Tsing 2015 The Mushroom at the End of the World On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Princeton/Oxford Princeton University Press
G. Maciunas 1963 Fluxus Manifesto 1
G. Maciunas 1965 Manifesto on Art / Fluxus Art Amusement 1
M. McCully 1981 A Picasso Anthology: Documents, Criticism, Reminiscences London Thames & Hudson
G. Ouzounian 2011 The Uncertainty of Experience: On George Brecht’s Event Scores Journal of Visual Culture 10 2 198 211
P. Pfeifer 2011 A Menu of Chance Print 65 1 2011.36-41
D. Richter 2012 Fluxus. Kunst gleich Leben? Mythen um Autorschaft, Produktion, Geschlecht und Gemeinschaft PhD diss. University of Bremen 2011 Zurich
J. Robinson 2004 The Sculpture of Indeterminacy: Alison Knowles’s Beans and Variations Art Journal 63 4 96 115
V. Rühse 2015 Kollektive surrealistische Kunstspiel aus der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs IFK-Sommerakademie Reader IV Vienna IFK 31 40
K. Silverman 2010 Begin Again. A Biography of John Cage Evanston Northwestern University Press
B. Spitz 2012 Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child New York Knopf
P. StegmannJ. Burkard 2012 The Lunatics are on the loose European Fluxus Festivals 1962-1977, exhibition catalogue Potsdam Down with Art!
C. N. Terranova 2014 Automotive Prosthetic: Technological Mediation and the Car in Conceptual Art Austin University of Texas Press
J. Wark 2009 Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art in North America Montreal McGill-Queen’s University Press
N. L. Woods 2017 Provisional objects: Alison Knowles’s “Bean Rolls” S. BottinelliD’Ayala ValvaM. The taste of art, Fayetteville Arkansas The University of Arkansas Press 263 278

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] K. Albala 2007 Beans. A History Oxford/New York Berg

[2] American Women: Report of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women 1963 Washington For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US Govt. Print. Off

[3] G. Brecht 1966 Chance-Imagery New York Something Else Press

[4] A. Burghardt 2013 Sammelleidenschaft: Historische Kochbücher Die Presse (Schaufenster) 29 May https://diepresse.com/home/schaufenster/gourmet/1412682/Sammelleidenschaft_HistorischeKochbuecher 22 August 2019

[5] J. CageH. Cowell 1939 1961 Goal: New Music, New Dance J. Silence. Cage Middletown Wesleyan University Press 87f

[6] J. Cage 1958 1961 Indeterminacy J. Silence. Cage Middletown Wesleyan University Press 260 274

[7] J. Cage 1969 Notations New York Something Else Press

[8] G. Casale 1996 Gli incanti dell’Iride: Giovanna Garzoni pittrice nel Seicento Cinisello Balsamo Silvana Ed

[9] M. Delville 2008 Food, Poetry, and the Aesthetics of Consumption: Eating the Avant-garde New York Routledge

[10] M. Dumett 2017 Corporate Imaginations: Fluxus Strategies for Living Oakland University of California Press

[11] S. Ebert-Schifferer 2011 Annibale Carraccis ‘Bohnenesser’. Revolution als Nebenprodukt U. PfistererG. Wimböck “Novità”. Neuheitskonzepte in den Bildkünsten um 1600 Zurich Diaphanes 111 131

[12] E. Enid Nemy 1975 Knockoffs: Sincerest Form of Flattery The New York Times 15 June 52

[13] L. Galliano 2019 Japan Fluxus Lanham Lexington Books

[14] E. E. Goodman 2016 Feeding Feminism: Food and Gender Ideology in American Women’s Art, 1960-1979 PhD diss. University of California San Diego

[15] H. B. Higgins 2010 Love’s Labor’s Lost and Found: A Meditation on Fluxus, Family, and Somethings Else Art Journal 69 1/2 SpringSummer 8 22

[16] H. B. Hannah B. Higgins 2012 An Introduction to Alison Knowles’s “The House of Dust” D. Kahn Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Computing and the Foundations of the Digital Arts Berkeley University of California Press 195 199

[17] N. Ickeringill 1960 Food News: Dilly Beans Make Good The New York Times 4 March 1960 17

[18] D. Kahn 1990 The Latest: Fluxus and Music E. ArmstrongJ. Rothfuss In the Spirit of Fluxus Minneapolis Walker Art Center 100121

[19] A. Knowles 1965 Simultaneous Bean Reading Autumn 1964 Alison Knowles New York Something Else Press (#12)

[20] A. Knowles 1995 Interview with Gustavo Matamoros SUBTROPICS https://subtropics.org/wpcontent/uploads/2008/11/FTNK-alison-knowlesfrijoles1.mp3 20 August 2019

[21] A. Knowles 2000 Footnotes New York Granary Books

[22] S. Lovegren 2007 Historical Overview: World War II to the Early 1960s A. F. Smith The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink Oxford / New York Oxford University Press 292293

[23] A. Lowenhaupt Tsing 2015 The Mushroom at the End of the World On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Princeton/Oxford Princeton University Press

[24] G. Maciunas 1963 Fluxus Manifesto 1

[25] G. Maciunas 1965 Manifesto on Art / Fluxus Art Amusement 1

[26] M. McCully 1981 A Picasso Anthology: Documents, Criticism, Reminiscences London Thames & Hudson

[27] G. Ouzounian 2011 The Uncertainty of Experience: On George Brecht’s Event Scores Journal of Visual Culture 10 2 198 211

[28] P. Pfeifer 2011 A Menu of Chance Print 65 1 2011.36-41

[29] D. Richter 2012 Fluxus. Kunst gleich Leben? Mythen um Autorschaft, Produktion, Geschlecht und Gemeinschaft PhD diss. University of Bremen 2011 Zurich

[30] J. Robinson 2004 The Sculpture of Indeterminacy: Alison Knowles’s Beans and Variations Art Journal 63 4 96 115

[31] V. Rühse 2015 Kollektive surrealistische Kunstspiel aus der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs IFK-Sommerakademie Reader IV Vienna IFK 31 40

[32] K. Silverman 2010 Begin Again. A Biography of John Cage Evanston Northwestern University Press

[33] B. Spitz 2012 Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child New York Knopf

[34] P. StegmannJ. Burkard 2012 The Lunatics are on the loose European Fluxus Festivals 1962-1977, exhibition catalogue Potsdam Down with Art!

[35] C. N. Terranova 2014 Automotive Prosthetic: Technological Mediation and the Car in Conceptual Art Austin University of Texas Press

[36] J. Wark 2009 Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art in North America Montreal McGill-Queen’s University Press

[37] N. L. Woods 2017 Provisional objects: Alison Knowles’s “Bean Rolls” S. BottinelliD’Ayala ValvaM. The taste of art, Fayetteville Arkansas The University of Arkansas Press 263 278

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