Dimensions / 20.3×25.4cm (8x10inch)
Medium / B&W Photograph

This is a performance of Arthur Køpcke’s Music While You Work (1962) in Festum Fluxorum Fluxus, Musik und Antimusik – Das Instrumentale Theater held in Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1963. Køpcke left a scratch or put glue on a record’s surface. When it was played back, a stylus would jump over or get caught on certain grooves after a first few minutes, ending up with the phonograph turned off. When the record begins to spin, each performer carries out a certain act they choose to do, like sweeping the floor. When the needle adheres or is locked into a groove they stop what they are doing. Whoever rushes to the record player first resets the needle back to the first groove, and they resume what they were doing. The whole process is repeated over and over again until the work of any single performer is complete. Nam June Paik called one of his prepared pianos shown in Exposition of Music – Electronic Music, ‘Piano for Køpcke’ modeled on Køpcke’s Shut Books.