Entropy Embrace

Composition 1960 #10 (for Bob Morris)

Draw a straight line and follow it.

Nam Paik June performing the score in 1962

Young's Reminiscence #1

“I remember one day in Utah when I was in junior high school when we lived on the shore of Utah Lake, managing my Uncle Thornton’s celery farm. One day in the middle of winter, freezing cold, wind blowing up off of Utah lake, we went down to the shore of the lake and worked all day digging post holes, putting poles in the ground, lining them up perfectly, and then stringing barbed wire across them. And it was just, like, unbelievably cold, and unbelievably hard work, and [my Father] never stopped. And, also, he was very, very concerned about making the fence straight and lining it up.”

• Young & Marian Zazeela interviewed by Ian Nagoski, 1995

Composition 1960 #9

The score

The performance instructions on the score's envelope

Young's Reminiscence #2

“My 'Composition 1960 #9' consists of a straight line drawn on a piece of paper. It is to be performed and comes with no instructions. The night I met Jackson Mac Low we went down to my apartment and he read some of his poems for us. Later, when he was going to go home, he said he'd write out directions to get to his place so we could come and visit him sometime. He happened to pick up 'Composition 1960 #9' and said, 'Can I write it here?' I said, 'No, wait, that's a piece. Don't write on that.' He said, 'Whadaya mean a piece? That's just a line.”

• Young, “Lecture 1960”