Chapter Three: Anarchist Experiments

This chapter considers the influence of leftist sociopolitical philosophy on the Cage-Cunningham-Rauschenberg aesthetic. After detailing Cage’s approach to anarchist assembly and Cunningham’s adaptation of techniques of self-overcoming to the dance composition process, the costume design Cunningham favored (as well as ways Rauschenberg challenged it) is discussed. Analysis of the anarchist materialism apparent in Rauschenberg’s own performance work fueled a personal collaboration with an experimental costume designer which, among other things, highlights implications of non-collaborative collaboration and fosters consideration of the relationship between anarchism and other approaches to costuming that aim to destabilize habits and social conventions.