At one moment in her essay Nelson asks us to compare the work of two artists: the Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Hennann Nitsch, whose multimedia creations routinely include scenes of mutilated humans...

At one moment in her essay Nelson asks us to compare the work of two artists: the Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Hennann Nitsch, whose multimedia creations routinely include scenes of mutilated humans and animals, and John Cage's Zen-inspired 4' 3311 • Examples of the work of both artists are available online. On YouTube, for example, you can listen to Cage's "Dream" or "In a Landscape," and you can hear some of Nitsch's workbur you should do an image search as well. Prepare to be surprised and possibly revuJsed. Using Cage and Nitsch as a starting point, discuss the dangers and the possibilities offered by the arts in our time. ln what ways are Cage and Nitsch in opposition? What objectives and methods do they share despite tJ,eir di.flerences? Can art point the 'vVay beyond our current dilemmas, or does it simply mirror ou.r confusions?