"Porges, Timothy" wrote:
> My point is, everything is different now. old fluxus is: the cold war,
> snailmail art (this one is subject to rediscovery, like lithography),
Snailmail art never died (the Eternal Network still lives) nor did lithography
as far as I know, or Crown Point Press, and Gemini GL, etc. wouldn't be
around.
>
> happy food fests (rirkrit has already rediscovered this one), indeterminacy
> and insane-control-freakdom in interminable, unstable balance.
I'm not quite sure the Fluxfeasts took it to the extremes of Rirkrit, cooking in
museums, leaving the remains to become gaseous, and opening a restaurant of
sorts at the Biennale, but they may have been his muse. I guess he's not
delivering paintings any more.
> Old fluxus is
> now a RESOURCE, like old dada. New fluxus should avail itself of that
> resource, up to and including the appropriation of the name, without
> worrying for a second about the high-church issues that spoil(ed) some of
> the fun. New fluxus doesn't have to take on the burden of every crazy uncle
> in the old-fluxus family. This is not a blood tie, or the eurodisneyland of
> cold-war culture.
I agree. It's a reference. It's not a blueprint. It's lovely to open an old
book and explore the value it contains, and the roots and the threads and the
interpretations, and the philosophies can change our lives, and the discussions
are fruitful, but in the end, it's growth and change.
I spoke with a fellow fluxlister who asked me what I had learned since I had
been on fluxlist (I joined in February for that particular reason - to learn).
After pondering, I replied that what I had learned had been mostly on the
outside of the list, researching after being pointed in the direction of a book,
an idea, a website or whatever. But, the most important experience to me has
been interaction and group endeavors. It still blows me away that this group
can participate in a global art project and carry it off!! I have certainly
learned that fluxus has its splits, arguments, factions, hissing and
churlishness like any other art movement, but...still....
We are not being fluxish in the age of flux.
We are interacting globally, making art, conversing in the media age, able to
transmit thoughts, art, even insults, all over the world at a connection and a
touch. Fluxlist has archives, yet the archivist will not be victim to physical
injury for moving them around. We can gather images, set up websites - and the
end result is interaction. It doesn't substitute for the feel of paper, the
emotion of performance, but it facilitates and it changes so rapidly, it makes
for more flux in our lives, literally.
> i think the point i'm missing here has to do with fun. old fluxus had a lot
> to do with fun, though it was often twee, Unitarian-church-basement fun. but
> that was probably just me.
Nope, you were there, I wasn't. I discovered fluxus after a lot of art sturm
und drang, and I like the fun part. I think we should keep that up. BtW, what
the hell did you do in a Unitarian-church-basement?
Best,
PK
