I didn't catch the mean message to Dick Higgins either. Like him, I have
certain people whose posts I never both with.
I wrote to Higgins about five years ago and never received anything but
warmth, encouragement, intelligence and generosity. We later kept up an
email correspondance almost weekly until he died.
To hear that there were slanderous remarks posted here only re-inforces my
growing suspicion that this list is less about Fluxus than it is about
lonely egomaniacs looking for a place to feel self-important.
dd
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Friedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Fluxlist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: June 2, 2000 1:00 PM
Subject: FLUXLIST: Dick Higgins "His shoots shall spread out; his beauty
shall belike the olive tree ..."
>It's a bit hard for me to swallow the gratuitious and
>mean-spirited note recently posted here against the
>late Dick Higgins.
>
>One must wonder what causes a man to see nothing
>in others but that which is small, crabbed or monstrous.
>
>When I observe this kind of behavior, I suspect that what
>he sees is little more than the projected reflection of his own
>character.
>
>I feel as George Free feels. It's nearly 35 years since I first
>wrote to Dick Higgins, and I, too, was thrilled when Dick
>engaged me in correspondence.
>
>No one was ever less characterized by the notion of an
>"unquestionable, overarching, prescribed agenda." Dick was
>deep, thorough, systematic. He thought things through. He
>changed his mind. He thought again. He welcomed others
>and he welcomed debate.
>
>Like all of us who travel about in a human body, Dick also
>got irritated from time to time, and he could be peevish or
>quirky. He was never mean-spirited or narrow.
>
>Few people known to me have lived their life in such
>profound spiritual or material generosity. He staked his
>fortune on what he believed in. He lost much of it, and
>he never complained that he was no longer rich. He was
>only sad that it was hard to find a regular, paying job in
>the arts along with the many art teachers and techno-geeks
>who do so well. I number one specific geek in that
>company.
>
>(It does still surprise me that not one of the
>several hundred universities with intermedia departments,
>intermedia program and intermedia degrees had a place
>for the man who theorized the concept of intermedia,
>coined the word and introduced it to the world.)
>
>Dick Higgins spent much of his life building
>platforms and forums for the work of other
>people, shaping networks, making introductions,
>publishing books, directing the attention of critics
>and curators to those whose work he admired.
>
>This is a sharp contrast to someone whose primary
>complaint seems be that the world fails to recognize
>his genius -- and whose primary career goal seems
>to be building ever more sites and projects to crank out his
>own work.
>
>My guess is that Saul Ostrow takes it as a great compliment
>to be compared with Dick Higgins.
>
>There are many lists where our distinguished colleague posts
>from time to time. Many of these are characterized by a
>back-channel network of those who send notes to each other
>with astonishment, irritation and a resolute determination
>neither to engage him nor to respond.
>
>Usually, I'd let this kind of thing go, but I still miss
>Dick and I am not in the mood to let such stupidity go
>unchallenged.
>
>David Ross speaks for many of us when he writes,
>
>> Yeah Brad, well when I grow up and become a real, true radical artist
>> like you, then maybe I can aspire to your level of accomplishment and
>> contribution, and brutal, uplifting honesty. Gosh, you're terrific.
>>
>> Oh, I checked your on-line work...pretty spiffy. And so profound!
>
>Anyone care to guess who among these will be remembered,
>and how?
>
>"His shoots shall spread out;
>his beauty shall be like the olive tree,
>and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
>They shall again live beneath my shadow,
>they shall flourish as a garden;
>they shall blossom like the vine,
>their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon."
>
>-- Hosea 14: 6-7
>
>-- Ken Friedman
>
>--
>
>
>
