The records relate to the preparation for the musical chess game, the major event of the SightSoundSystems Festival of Art and Technology, presented by the Isaacs Gallery Mixed Media Concerts and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Five major events took place throughout the week of March 5 - 10, 1968, including "E.A.T.", "Public Supply", "T.E.A.", "Supersystems", and "Reunion" (the musical chess game).
The chess game, whereby the chessboard was wired to produce musical sounds with every move, was played between French artist and expert chess player, Marcel Duchamps and American avant-garde composer, artist, and theorist, John Cage. It was a banner event for the festival and so named "Reunion" by John Cage reflecting a chess game between the then recently formed friends, Cage and Duchamps at a chess exhibit of paintings and sculptures called, "The Imagery of Chess", held in 1944 New York City.
The artistic director for "Reunion" was Udo Kassemets of the Isaacs Gallery Mixed Media Concerts. Don Gillies of Ryerson Polytechnic Institute was the business manager and Karen (Naylor) Mulhallen of the English Department was the producer for Supersystems and who also worked with Darryl Williams on the film environment.
