Cloud Nonet (After Mureau)

September 16 1989, Cowell Theater, San Francisco

video installation by Kim McCloud and Randall Packer

Nine video monitors, stacked in three rows and three columns, display cycling images of clouds photographed with a Polaroid camera from the skies of San Francisco. The photos were taken over a one year period, capturing the variety of cloud formations that pass throughout the four seasons.

The ethereal imagery was accompanied by a four-channel tape collage of spoken texts read by John Cage. The texts were from Cage's Mureau, a chance rendering from Thoreau's journal, musings on sound and nature. The installation was placed at the entrance of the theater where CageFest was performed. The audience had to pass by and through the installation before entering, in preparation for "listening" with fresh ears to the music of John Cage.