“We still recognise that much of what gives one’s life meaning stems from accidents, interruptions, and serendipitous encounters: the ‘off time’ that a mechanistic view of the experience seeks to eliminate.” – Jenny Odell.[1]

This workshop was conceived as a way of enacting themes within Jenny Odell’s ‘How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy’ (2019) and Tricia Hersey’s ‘Rest Is Resistance’ (2022) through John Cage’s seminal work 4’33”(1952). Developed from a growing concern surrounding hustle culture, guilt and burnout, this toolkit aims to provide participants with a reminder of the importance in taking pause. In using 4’33” as a framework for taking pause, what may Cage’s work teach us about our time and doing nothing?

What you need:

1-10 participants, a busy location and a way to measure time. Optional: pen and blank paper.

1. Find a location that has some activity or busyness and get comfortable by either sitting or standing. If you are joined by companions, do not face one another: situate yourself as observers. (5 minutes)
2. Once comfortable: set your timer for 4’33” and take pause. (4 minutes, 33 seconds)
3. Turn to face your companions. You have two options (10 minutes):

EITHER:

• a)  Remain in quiet contemplation and write about your experience of taking pause. 

OR

• b) Have an open discussion and share with your companions on how this experience of taking pause affected you. 

You may use this Google Forms questionnaire as a template for your discussions or for your quiet contemplation: https://forms.gle/RkTgzMbWjzpqwtrP9

Background:

John Cage’s Silence (4’33”) (1952) is a composition which questions whether or not there truly is such a thing as silence. With audience members seated, a musician takes stage but does not play their instrument. Instead, for next four minutes and thirty-three seconds, ambient sound and audience member’s own bodies become the instruments within this memorable composition.

Jenny Odell’s ‘How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy’ showcases how our capitalist and technology entrenched lives have stripped us of the simple art of doing nothing. As our success and worth as individuals is measured by our productivity or by merely giving attention to online influencers, Odell’s book is a call to action and resistance.

Tricia Hersey’s ‘Rest Is Resistance’ guides readers into understanding our bodies as a sites of liberation against capitalism and white supremacy. In offering readers her manifesto of rest, Hersey provides us with the ability to reclaim our lives from the system.

If you would prefer printouts of this toolkit and the reflection questionnaire, you may access the documents here: http://tinyurl.com/3r7ha8v3

[1] Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. (Brooklyn, NY; London, UK: Melville House Publishing, 2019), p. ix.

Pause (4’33”) © 2023 by Samantha MacAulay is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0