The Cacophony Society: the “free-spirited” art collective intent on creating chaos
Upon hearing the words ‘free-spirited’ and ‘art collective’ within the context of Los Angeles, you would be forgiven for picturing a variety of talentless trust-fund hippies creating derivative artwork from the comfort of their luxury apartments. However, The Cacophony Society aims to alter that perception, purporting anarchic societal experiments in the spirit of the Dada movement and surrealist artwork.
First founded in San Francisco in 1986, The Cacophony Society was born from the remnants of The Suicide Club, a secret society which forced people to face their fears through extreme urban exploration and public pranks. Cacophony follows much the same themes, though with a less problematic title, performing a variety of public pranks under the guise of Dadaism and performance art. The anarchic element of the group means that virtually anybody can join, with no strict rules surrounding membership.
Over the years, The Cacophony Society has been responsible for various things, including organising the intensely popular Burning Man Festival, held annually in the deserts of Nevada. However, it was the establishment of the group’s Los Angeles chapter in 1991 that really kicked things into overdrive. Notable events and ‘artworks’ that the LA chapter of The Cacophony Society were behind included ‘Cement Cuddlers’, in which members would fill a dozen teddy bears with cement before placing them on the shelves of toy shops, complete with barcodes.
The actions of LA’s Cacophony Society range from the fairly tame, such as altering advertising billboards or glueing toasters to walls, to the outright bizarre, such as ‘Klowns Against Commerce’, a prank which involved members dressing as clowns and harassing local business owners for seemingly no reason. Operating under the motto of “you may already be a member”, the group provided the inspiration for Chuck Paluhniuk’s ‘Project Mayhem’ in the novel Fight Club.
LA’s group splintered in 2000 after longtime leader Reverend Al joined a Christian Orthodox group – reportedly as a result of the guilt he felt over the death of two Cacophonists, neither of whom had actually died. However, the society witnessed something of a resurgence in the latter part of the decade thanks to the leadership of Heathervescent and Rev. Borfo, members of the San Francisco chapter.
Since the resurgence, the group have been responsible for pranks such as the fairly self-explanatory ‘Xmas in July’, ‘The Caveman Picnic’, and ‘The LA Marathon Zombie Stop’. Perhaps their most widespread event comes with the annual ‘SantaCon’, which sees thousands of people take part in a pub crawl while dressed as Santa.
Whether or not The Cacophony Society can truly declare itself as an ‘art collective’ remains controversial. Certainly, it is difficult to see the difference between these ‘pranks’ and the kind you would find done by kids on YouTube or on national television prank shows, neither of which have ever been considered ‘art’. Furthermore, this distinctly American take on Dadaism could be viewed as more than a little bit reductive of the movement’s original intentions and ethos. Nevertheless, The Cacophony Society of Los Angeles is seemingly here to stay.
