# Graphic Notation (図形楽譜)

> The scores Cage and Cardew drew when they abandoned the staff: shapes, lines, map-like pages. Opening performance to interpretation rather than instruction, the score itself became visual art.

- IndexStyle No.421 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/graphic-notation
- Kind: Style · Family: Notation Systems · Era: 1950s–
- Mood: Rebellion, Play, Calm
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- The staff abandoned
- Instruction by shape and line
- Pages open to interpretation
- The score as artwork

## Best used for

- Comparing primary sources and canonical works
- Extracting principles that transfer to other media

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process

## What to avoid

Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] The staff abandoned
- [ ] Instruction by shape and line
- [ ] Pages open to interpretation
- [ ] The score as artwork
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Staff Notation (五線譜)** — From Guido's lines to the five-line staff: pitch fixed to coordinates. Time running left to right, height mapped up and down — the longest-lived format in information design, in continuous use for a millennium. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/staff-notation
- **Concrete Poetry (具体詩／コンクリート・ポエトリー)** — Composes not just the meaning of words but their placement, repetition, blank space and sound as the poem itself. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/concrete-poetry

## Further study

- Cage's Fontana Mix
- Cardew's Treatise
- Toshi Ichiyanagi and Japanese graphic scores

## Reference works

- John Cage Trust — https://www.johncage.org/

## Source of record

- John Cage Trust — https://www.johncage.org/

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/graphic-notation
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/graphic-notation/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

ケージやカーデューが五線を捨てて描いた、図形・線・地図のような楽譜。演奏を指示ではなく解釈に開く紙面は、楽譜そのものを視覚芸術に変えた。

特徴: 五線の放棄／図形と線の指示／解釈に開かれた紙面／楽譜の作品化
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。