“I wanted to make poverty elegant” - John Cage
This quote was interesting to me because I think it speaks a lot to Cage's intentions with the "4'33" performance. He was taking a minimalist approach to music compositions. As a result, this redefined what we consider music and noise. Classical compositions are complex and sometimes requires a certain level of knowledge to appreciate it. However, Cage striped down these musical compositions to its simplest form; sometimes just being complete silence. This makes the music more digestible, however, this doesn't necessarily improve the popularity of the music style.
When applying this to my own interest in architecture, I see a lot of similarities with Cage's work and the modernist movement that occurred in the mid 20th century. Modernist architecture also had a minimalistic approach and essentially striped most structures of any ornamentation. The international style was also popular during this time period. This style promoted a design with simple lines and strict geometric forms. Similar to Cage, the goal was to create a style that more people could understand an appreciate.
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