The Intersection of Music and Mathematics
HENNIX, Catherine Christer; Henry FLYNT (editor). Modalities and Languages for Algorithms. Bearsville, New York: [self-published]. 1983.
Black binder with clear plastic front panel (c. 290 x 230mm); ff. ‘42’ (i.e. 47) unbound photocopied typescript, printed to rectos only; a few small marks to covers, else very good; Hennix’s address inscribed in her hand to foot of first leaf.
Very rare typescript ‘second edition’ of Toposes and Adjoints, in fact a parsing by Henry Flynt of the work of the same name by the pioneering Swedish transgender avant-garde composer, mathematician, poet, visual artist, and musician Catherine Hennix, conceived as part of a visual installation of the same name exhibited at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1976.
Modalities and Languages for Algorithms seemingly circulated only in typescript until its inclusion in Hennix’s Poësy Matters and Other Matters (2019). Catherine Hennix (born Christer Hennix, 1948–2023) studied bio-chemistry and linguistics at Stockholm University; in 1968 she met Dick Higgins and Allison Knowles of the Fluxus movement and began collaborating with Henry Flynt.
Hennix and Flynt co- founded the guitar and drum duo Dharma Warriors, recording in her rented house in Bearsville (Woodstock, NY) at the same time as they revised her book. The resulting record, consisting of two wild improvisations, are seemingly at odds with the quote from Alain-Robbe Grillet which features both in Toposes and Adjoints and in this revised edition: ‘Nothing is more fantastic, ultimately, yet precision’, yet in spite of their musical chaos they embody the mathematical principles presented in this work. Hennix taught at MIT’s AI lab in the 1970s and studied under Alexander Esenin-Volpin, whose influence is present in this work.
No copies traced in OCLC or Library Hub.
SKU: 2123098