Ever since it was founded, the CAYC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación), helmed by the cultural promoter, artist, and businessman Jorge Glusberg, was intended as an interdisciplinary space where an experimental art movement could flourish. The establishment of collaborative networks connecting local and international artists and critics played an important role in this process. In addition to the exhibitions, a program of different activities exposed attendees to the latest in scientific thinking. According to Glusberg, the coordination between theoretical thinking and artistic practice was an essential part of social change.
In keeping with its goal of positioning itself as a space for experimental work, especially for projects that sought to combine art, technology, and communication, the CAYC organized a variety of activities. The center was undoubtably the driving force behind the avant-garde as it sought to explore and understand the mass media.
This newsletter announces the roundtable discussion titled “Comunicación y música” as part of the “Primer Coloquio Latinoamericano de la Comunicación” (GT-566; doc. no. pending, GT-569; doc. no. 1478992, GT-572; doc. no. 1478994, GT-574; doc. no. 1478995, GT-575; doc. no. 1478996, GT-576,-577; doc. no. 1478997). The event was coordinated by Rodolfo Arizaga (1926–1985) and included prominent figures in the field of local contemporary music, such as the music critics Napoléon Cabrera (1917–2009), Martín Müller (1926–1991), and Héctor Coda (1932–2021) and the musicologists and composers Enrique Belloc (1936–2020), Carlos Suffern (1901–1991), Alicia Terzian (b. 1934), and Gerardo Gandini (1936–2013). The idea behind the event was that music, as a form of communication, expresses the sociopolitical factors that give shape to an era.
Rodolfo Arizaga was a composer, musicologist, and professor. He graduated from the Conservatorio Nacional and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. He experimented with the Ondes Martenot (Martenot Waves), an electronic instrument invented in 1928. It consists of a keyboard, a speaker, and a low-frequency generator that, together, produce a range of sound effects. When Arizaga returned to Buenos Aires in the 1960s, he was a key figure in the contemporary music scene. He delivered a seminar at the CAYC in August through September 1975 (CT-542; doc. no. 1478957).
