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 biochemistry 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 taught at MIT’s AI lab in the 1970s and studied under Alexander Esenin-Volpin, whose influence is present in this work. 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 consists of two wild improvisations, a sharp contrast to the logical precision of the present work; both Toposes and Adjoints and this revision thereof feature a particularly representative quote from Alain Robbe-Grillet: ‘Nothing is more fantastic, ultimately, than precision’.
No copies traced on OCLC or Library Hub.
SKU: 2123098