Re: FLUXLIST: Fluxus in School

[Ray Noman]

Title: Re: FLUXLIST: Fluxus in School

In for a penny in for a pound ... On the issue of “progress” it’s possible that there is a need to consider an alternative to this ‘Western’ notion that progress is singular and something like an orderly linear procession through time advancing relentlessly towards newness and leaving conquests in our wake. There are other models to consider and the ‘given’ that time is linear is something worth challenging.

I like the notion that time is somewhat disjointed and lumpy, not linear and smooth, and that it proceeds chaotically, multidimensionally, and not in an orderly way, albeit systematically. It’s a less convenient idea than the one Western culture tends to assume but it’s quite useful if you want to strip away some of the baggage about what’s new, what’s real and what’s appropriate.

 
In such a paradigm might it not be a little useful to think of the ‘FLUXUSattitude’ as a coagulation of ideas that in turn become attached to others. If the ‘modern art enterprise’ aspires towards the “condition of music”, and modern music aspires towards, let’s call it the condition of ‘painting’, how might the FLUXUS enterprise be characterised in all this? And, then how might it be taught? Need it be? Might not introduction be enough? And if we think of time as being something other than linear, where are the ‘the 60s’ relative to now?

Over and out, Ray


> From: "Sol Nte" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 10:11:08 +0100
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: FLUXLIST: Fluxus in School
>
> Hi Ray and all,

There may be value (say intellectual value) in adopting a retroFLUXUS stance in order to get a handle on the ideas “the attitude” embraces – or was/is it embraced? But that consideration alone would seem to ignore the potential of the idea(s) that gave FLUXUS its impetus in the 60s. Was everything that needed to be discovered, indeed discovered in the 60s/70s? Is the  exploration complete? Can indeed we really contemplate a retroFLUXUS?

>One solution to the employment of past artistic models in contemporary practice has been offered by IRWIN with their retro principle  http://www.nskstate.com/athens/irwin/texts/retro.asp

> I'm just reading their Retroprincip catalogue at the moment that I got the other weekend. IRWIN employ historical models of avantgarde praxis in contemporary activity through their use of retroavantgarde....read the above link and here they reference Malevich in current work http://www.nskstate.com/athens/irwin/texts/icons-review.asp

> Of course IRWIN could be interpreted in the context of plagiarism also but I think their ideas are strong enough to counter such arguments.

> BTW - as regards the Fluxus Codex we are very lucky to have such easy access to thorough documentation like this....I've yet to see another art catalogue that is equally comprehensive.

> I also understand where Madawg is coming from on this but without some evaluation of current fluxus practice situated within the historical activity/traditions from which it evolves it would be very difficult to make real progress.

> cheers,
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> Sol.
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