1991
In the essay “The Cage Class,” published for the FluxAttitudes exhibition (1991), Bruce Altshuler examines the profound influence of John Cage’s composition classes at the New School for Social Research (1956–1960) on the development of Fluxus and experimental art.
While the "Cage Class" primarily featured figures like George Brecht, Allan Kaprow, and Dick Higgins, Altshuler’s analysis provides the essential historical lineage for Max Neuhaus, who entered this orbit shortly thereafter as a premier interpreter of Cage’s percussion music.
Altshuler describes how Cage taught his students to view "composition" as a series of instructions or "events" rather than a fixed musical score. This directly influenced Neuhaus’s later decision to stop performing traditional concerts and instead "score" the environment itself (e.g., his Listen walks or sound installations).