Caged in Imaginary Landscapes In the 1930s and 1940s in the United States, one of the first dedicated sound artists was keenly aware of the musical developments in Europe since the turn of the century and he followed the production of electronic music and instrumentation worldwide. Prior to the first tests at Los Alamos , this American musical genius had the foresight to realize the effect that modern technology would have on society and its arts—especially music. The war had already begun in Europe and many creative artists and composers were fleeing to the Americas. It was at this time, in Seattle in 1939, that John Cage was beginning his work in sound art —quickly surpassing experimentation with recorded sound to reach a dedication to the sound art—producing his Imaginary Landscape No. 1 for percussion, muted piano, and variable speed record player. The sounds Cage called for to be played on the disc record players were simple test tones, Cage’s intent was to play the discs at varying speeds, transforming the original sound in live performance. Cage was uncompromising with his use of the disc phonograph, he saw it simply as an instrument for composition— one that was separate from traditional instruments in its cultural inculcation and ability to alter sound and reproduce music. Cage was still using phonographs and recorded sound in composition in Imaginary Landscape No. 2, a piece he perfected over two years, calling for strings, piano, percussion, and records of constant and variable frequency. By 1941, Cage was working in Chicago with poet Kenneth Patchen and using the equipment of CBS studios for his compositions; and, in 1942 he produced three works all employing phonograph recordings in different musical contexts: Imaginary Landscape No. 3, The City Wears a Slouch Hat, Credo in Us. In his Imaginary Landscape No. 3, which debuted at the New York Museum of Modern Art in February of 1943, Cage performed using a radio, amplified coil of wire, electric buzzers, audio oscillators, and marimbula in addition to variable speed phonographs—all amplified through a contact microphone Cage was trying to capture the music of the modern world and its artificial environments, filled with the buzzes, hums, and alien noises of the latest consumer and commercial electronics. The persistent spread of the recording medium and increasing infiltration of the ionosphere continued to effect a changing definition of listening; and, more important than Cage’s use of extraordinary sound sources was his awareness of the changing definition of performance. He composed his pieces for live performance, radio broadcast, and recording—blurring the distinction between the three arenas, proving that technological foresight and adaptability were inherent traits of the sound artist.