Sound of a Cage (2010, 2013, 2016) originates from the legacy of the composer, poet, anarchist, and academic John Cage. The festival, curated by Liv Runesdatter, combines the exhibition of art, music, design, film, performance, workshops, lectures, and professional discussions.

“Change my way of seeing seeing is about thinking” – John Cage

Program Sound of a Cage 2016:

Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; “verse without words”.
– Wikipedia

Sound of a Cage was first held at Stavanger Art Association in August 2010, with a focus on the «open form» tradition. Over two days, participants were presented with workshops, new choreography, concerts, and a rich menu of lectures. The music on the program included works by Morton Feldman, Bjerga / Iversen, Christian Wolff, John Cage, Jaap Blonk, Trevor Wishart, and Else Olsen Storesund.

The theme for «Sound of a Cage» in 2012 was «form» as a concept and tool. Among the guests were vocalist Sidsel Endresen, the design studio NODE Berlin Oslo, art historian and museum director Peter Meyer, the chamber ensemble Song Circus, music historian and composer Morten Eide Pedersen, musicologist Ingrid Romarheim Haugen from the National Library, and more. Song Circus performed Cardew’s Paragraph 7, from The Great Learning based on texts by Confucius. The conference concluded with Sidsel Endresen’s and Rolf Wallin’s concert piece Lautleben, with a film by Tone Myskja. Stavanger Art Museum featured exhibitions by Dorte Østergård and Henrik B. «Sound of a Cage» in 2012 was organized by CARMA Contemporary Art, Music & Dance, in collaboration with Rogaland Art Museum / MUST, Ny Musikk, Tou Scene, MFO, and Grafill. The conference was supported by Arts Council Norway.

 Trailer fra Sound of a Cage 3: