My research of the 60s experimental movement included reading numerous books written by the composers themselves. Clearly the reading of performance I have given, with emphasis on structure and the interaction between a machinic, performative text and an "ergodic" type performer/listener will sound familiar (8). Surprisingly, the composers, as "postmodern artists," writing from the "position of a philosopher," were equally analytical.(9) This can mostly be explained by the fact that each is a trained musician, taught to think analytically and in terms of form. Cornelius Cardew in The Treatise even talks of his reading Ludwig Wittgenstein:

"The career of Ludwig Wittgenstein the philosopher (brother of the famous left-hand pianist who emigrated to America)-whose writings incidentally are full of musical insights-provides an illustrative example…In his later writing Wittgenstein has abandoned theory, and all the glory that theory can bring on a philosopher (or musician), in favor of an illustrative technique."

As Cardew faced the musicological "language systems," and the self-defeating logic of total, precise control over structure found in serialism, his identification with Wittgenstein is appropriate. This move away from a specificity in language is pervasive in Western thought. Cardew quoting Wittgenstein:

"Our language can be seen as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitiude of new boroughs with straight regular streets and uniform houses. It is easy to imagine a language consisting only of orders and reports in a battle-Or a language consisting only of questions and expressions for answering yes and no. And innumerable others.-And to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life."

I think I started this project without quite the same awareness I now have of the academic signifier. While reading the analysis composers provided of their works, I was struck by how similar their conception of performance and interaction was to contemporary theory of hypertext. Indeed, the aversion to the referent I had hoped to seek out, I found.