greetings Owen and all,
Thanks for your interesting notes.
a request for more definition...
non-hierarchal density of experience = ? is that sort of like flux
density -
n. Physics - Flux per unit area.
the presence of a total of social activities =?
Fluxus world view = ? [as far as I can determine the is no fluxus world
view - not one that is jointly held by more than one person anyway - and
lets not confuse the seeming excessive preoccupation of European Flux
folk
with political views as being in anyway a fluxist view]
one of the most central and crucial aspects of Fluxus is often
disregarded
[which is] = ?
Postmodernism as an attitude [the attitude of] = ?
works which stress the notion of differing situational interpretations
[examples being] = ?
tied to a referential whole [which is] = ?
the determination of existence by opposition = ?
'The Fluxus world view must ultimately been seen as intimating the
rejection
of the idea that individual can have an identity apart from the social
order.' {that could use a little explanation)
'an underlying awareness that the work (object/performance) as a
supposed
extension of the individual, can have no pre-determined identity or even
purpose exterior to the social order within which it exists.'
Doesn't that apply to everything kind of like, there is an underlying
awareness that air is a prerequisite for breathing?
Behind all of the bull surrounding fluxus I think you stated very
clearly in
your article in the fluxus reader that fluxus as a historical event was
the
act of megalomaniac George attempting to draw a circle around the art
world
of his day and call it Fluxus with him as king George presiding over it.
Pure macho and contrary to any sort of avant garde tendency of the day.
This
coupled with the 'good old boy network' using Cage and his influence as
a
fulcrum historically. It is just a natural progression that if you take
a
bunch of guys with a minimal musical background studying under a guy
(cage)
who is a kind of music concretist in a time when that sort of thing is
in
vogue all over the world from Russia to South America, that things like
scores, events and performance are going to develop, in fact none of
these
things were in the least new at the time. George in fact doesn't strike
me
as having been much more that a opportunistic putterer.
but that's all water under the yam as they say,
On this glorious day when the FluxNexus has begun to take form, all
things
fluxus shall from this day forward be regarded as merely protoFluxNexus
activity. The FluxNexus will now form its own language and work toward
the
actualization of its own contemporary agenda which may have little to do
with the flux ideas that seemed so special in the 60s but which now, we
must
assume, are too antiquated for present use except for their novelty. In
fact, this seems to have been the main strategy of fluxus art; novelty.
There are deeper things which I think artists, non-artists and
anti-artists
of today wish to explore, things of a more spiritually meaningful
nature.
Things that transcend petty concerns like politics and the arrogance of
social critique.
I believe the (often associated with fluxus) attitude that art must be
debunked must, at this point be debunked. Perhaps there seemed a
contextual
rationale at one time but that context, I believe no longer exists or if
it
does, a new and more carefully thought out attitude needs to be
proposed.
Instead, for instance, of ridding the world of art, I think we can see
that
the greatest need is to train all people in artfulness. To live an
artless
life is to live a life of crudeness and barbarity.
Cecil
----- Original Message -----
From: "Owen Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: FLUXLIST: The real old thing
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > Somebody please be kind enough to tell me what Fluxus really
is.
> >Clearly, I must've been mistaken, as there is plenty of hostility and
> >negativity concerning false Fluxus and who is more Fluxus than
someone
> >else. Mr. Andersen, I acknowledge your history with Fluxus and I
understand
> >that you are a well established artist in the Fluxus field. Maybe you
would
> >be the one to provide a detailed and rigid form of what art must be
to be
> >defined as Fluxus, and more importantly, why, as you seem to be the
only
> >person who sees Fluxus in any sort of limited scope.
>
>
>
> Fluxus is by nature anti-reductivist, for it does not seek the
illumination of some end or fact but celebrates the participation in a
non-hierarchal density of experience. In this way Fluxus does not refer
to a
style or even a procedure as such but
> to the presence of a total of social activities. The attempt to place
Fluxus in history falls into the positivist (in the sense that human
knowledge derives from systematic study) as well as art historical trap
of
defining the presence of something
> by divining the presence of a core, whether it be of ideas, people or
activities. Thus as the debate rages as to who was part of Fluxus and
who
wasn't, or when and where Fluxus existed, one of the most central and
crucial aspects of Fluxus is often
> disregarded. Although some trace of Fluxus does exist in what was done
and
who did it, such a narrow view obscures the key to Fluxus, that which I
call
a world view.
>
> If there is an ontology of Fluxus it is connected with what we have
begun
to call, for lack of a better term, postmodernism. Postmodernism as an
attitude, and not as a specific form of cultural production, is in part
based on the notion that the
> contradictions of the interpretation of any given meaning statement
really
exist, even though they may be hidden to the author who desires to form
a
coherent and unified statement of meaning. The relation of this concept
of
meaning production to the
> Fluxus world view is evident in works which stress the notion of
differing
situational interpretations. The meaning evident through Fluxus events
and
objects shifts and changes because they are tied to, and activated by
the
situations in which they
> are viewed or enacted. Fluxus pushes this recognition to the point
where
the existence of contradiction (or at least its possibility) becomes
recognized as part of the extended creative act in as far as these acts
mirror the contradictory operations
> of the world. By participating in these operations Fluxus seeks not to
reconstruct what makes thought or experience coherent, but to
demonstrate
the ultimate incoherence of thought and action when removed from its
operational contexts. Thus Fluxus
> manifests itself not as a series of fixed points but as a
conditionally
determined field, bound up with contradiction (and the potential for it)
and
tied to a referential whole that "makes" the work a possibility.
>
> The Fluxus world view is, with its emphasis on the whole/system as the
means by which meaning is conferred on any given particular, a
manifestation
of a rejection of liberal individualism. The Fluxus world view must
ultimately been seen as
> intimating the rejection of the idea that individual can have an
identity
apart from the social order. This recognition of self as defined not by
pre_societal factors, but as developed through the self's relations to
others, does not support the
> identification of a universal and preexisting standard (of society)
but
simply stresses the significance of relations, or difference, in
identification of a concept or even an individual. Fluxus recognizes
that
the artist, working inevitably from
> within a specific tradition, and its parent culture, cannot be
considered
the sole author of the particular work. For the nature of the individual
work, no matter how innovative, is always determined it relationship to
other objects and established
> traditions: the determination of existence by opposition. Even though
some
aspects of Fluxus seem to be marked by extreme individualism, such as in
the
work of Ben, there is none-the-less an underlying awareness that the
work
(object/performance) as
> a supposed extension of the individual, can have no pre-determined
identity or even purpose exterior to the social order within which it
exists. This facet of Fluxus is a simultaneous rejection of freedom as
defined by an autonomy from the social
> order and an embracement of the other major aspect of the Fluxus world
view, the freedom of play.
>
