9 Evenings: Theater & Engineering

Throughout the next two years Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), ARTPIX and Microcinema International will be releasing 10 DVD's documenting the 1966 event 9 evenings: theater & engineering. From October 13th - 23rd of 1966, 30 Engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated with performance artists: Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, David Tudor, Yvonne Rainer, Deborah Hay, Robert Whitman, Steve Paxton, Alex Hay, Lucinda Childs and Öyvind Fahlström to examine the relationships between live bodies, space, art and technology. The event was conceived and devised in collaboration between the late Robert Rauschenberg and Billy Klüver of Bell Technologies. Most of the dancers at the event were affiliated with the Judson Dance Church/Group. Held at the spacious New York 69th Regiment Armory, 9 evenings was considered one of the most contemporary performance events investigating the live performing body and technology since the Futurist experiments, the Bauhaus Performance Workshop and the early 1950's Black Mountain performances. The space itself housed the infamous Armory Show of 1913 which showed over 300 avant-garde American and European works including those by Duchamp and Cezanne. It still houses the 69th regiment and a violent military history.

To put 1966 context, we see:
1. The first partial artificial heart transplant
2. The influence of London's Carnaby Street fashion
3. The Vietnam war
4. The first disposable diaper invented
5. The development of Kevlar
6. NOW (National Organization for Women) is formed in Washington
7. The first Kesey 'Acid Test' party happens at the Fillmore in SF
8. Both Blonde on Blonde and Pet Sounds are released
9. The death of Andre Breton and the birth of John Cusack
10. No one receives the Nobel Peace prize.

| E.A.T. | Meredith Morse Paper | Images via E.A.T. |