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Archival description
Donald Gillies fonds Series
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Journal articles

Series contains 2 published journal articles and 1 book review written by Donald Gillies.

SightSoundSystems Festival of Art and Technology

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.

Unsorted material

Series consists of materials transferred in the Archives holdings in the 1970s and left in piles on shelving units. No original order was apparent other than the creator - Donald Gillies. After viewing materials it was discerned that the best course of action was to maintain the material in their original file folders and sort the loose materials accordingly.
Materials include meeting minutes, correspondence, curriculum documents, RFA materials, memos, Principal/President's newsletters, and a large file on Educational Television. There is a lot of cross related materials that came in a later donation in 2003 from Donald Gillies.