Michel Focault in his article "What is an Author" states: Today's writing has freed itself from the theme of expression." But expression of any sort is a pattern that needs to be read/viewed/heard/observed to be understood as to what it stands for or what is it signifying in terms of its context and structure, and how thoughts are interlinked and relayed in time and space in any culture.
And if I apply this statement to John Cage's experiment again, then music definitely is a means of expression. But he intervened in the process of experience in a specific space and created an opportunity to observe the self evolving expression. But we still call it "John Cage's" experiment hence he is the author, standing just on the peripheries of his created environment and did not relay any experience through his music per se, but let the environment (people and all the attributes of the space) unfold in the continuum of time and space.
So the meaning of expression in my point of view now becomes the experience or meaning that the user creates for his/herself based on his/her cultural background. And meanings (culturally speaking) are always in transition, because we neither live in isolation, nor understand things out of their context and here memory comes into play, allowing us to navigate/retrieve the data to make connections, hence leading towards a thought.
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