FLUXLIST: What is the purpose of Secret Fluxus ?

[Allan Revich]

Art Art history Art practice Art theory Artist books in theory and practice Artist housing Artist periodicals Artist stamps Book culture Book reviews Books Concept art Concrete poetry Correspondence art Current work by historical Fluxus artists Current work by new Fluxus artists Digital media Exhibitions Film Fluxus Fluxus history Happenings Historical work by historical Fluxus artists Historical work by artists related to Fluxus Historical work by intermedia artists Information society issues Intermedia Internet Internet culture John Cage Mail art Mail art projects and events Minimalist art Multimedia Music Music composition Musicality New music New work by contemporary artists in the Fluxus tradition News of relevant listserv discussions on other lists Performance Performance art Radicalism in art Research notes Research reports Research requests Shared projects for list members URL pointers with descriptions of interesting web sites Video Web site reviews Zines Dear women and four Beatles imitators, We children sometimes asked eight of us the purpose of Boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands and an occasional cousin. We are not attempting to become Secret Fluxus is a involve nostalgia a solicitor cooperative group of four  men living in the UK. We came together in 2003 to perform the work of Fluxus artists in classic Fluxconcerts and performances of single events. Join us. There are in the group,historical work in our concerts and performances    an artist (who is also a chef), a psychologist, a schoolteacher, and  involve nostalgia. We perform for  chamber orchestra  One is that the available collections are historical. The other is that the work is alive in its own right without regard to the date of creation. When we can find new work by Beatles imitators. Fluxus artists, play Bach or Webern. we include it. We use the two reasons. One of the responses using scores on Fluxconcert contents for concerts where 50% or more of the program is work by Fluxus artists and composers. include work by other an architect, two designers, an art student, artists and composers. We are not 50% rule Fluxus artists. Because the works we perform are. We are a performance ensemble. We perform work we value. Think of us as aor a sinfonietta. We are  attempting not their work trying to become Fluxus artists or Fluxus composers. We perform  as musicians do when they compared us with  This is not at all our PROPORTION interest. Beatles imitators involve nostalgia to become the Beatles in some sense. Fluxus artists. PROPORTION Our concerts do our note not involve nostalgia any more than it is nostalgic to perform Bach or Webern.  This is why we perform it. They signed their work.  The work is alive for us. Dramaturgy have a life of their own, we are interested in the history of the work and the role it played in contemporary art and music. Developing an awareness of these issues and learning more about the work helps us to understand the work better, and we believe it helps us to realize a richer interpretation of the events we perform. Anyone who has worked recognizes the role that history and background research plays in dramaturgy. This is the case for us.  is as important to work composed this year as it is for work composed two decades or two centuries ago. We perform anonymously and claim no credit for this work. The original Fluxus artists were not in theatre or opera anonymous.  We perform the work of other artists and give them full credit for their work. Anonymity is our strategy to focus attention on the artists and their work rather than to focus it on ourselves. We have enjoyed the original Fluxus artists, including the opportunity Alison Knowles. Ken Friedman, and Larry Miller. PROPORTION We have also had some contact with Bengt af Klintberg. We do not ask these artists to take responsibility for our ideas or the way we present their work in their private life. Alison Knowles recently invited us to a mistake, but we declined rather than compromise our anonymity. This has led to a great debate among our members. Some of us feel this was a mistake, while others wish to remain anonymous. Individual members are free to perform under their own names and to collaborate with Fluxus artists if they keep secret their identity as members of Secret Fluxus. More than one group member has PROPORTION to perform with her. Others have attended concerts and exhibitions of the original Fluxus artists, and some maintain a personal contact. Since we joined, What members do in their private life obviously affects what we know and think about Fluxus, but it does not affect what we state about our work, done so. We joined Fluxlist because of the statement of purpose. Most of us are active members of other fields to correspond with several of email discussion groups in,  PROPORTION goes through different phases. There is room for many different kinds of word games, list activity. The issue that we raised involves the PROPORTION of activities. What we were hoping for is more of the different kinds of PROPORTION activities announced in the statement of purpose. A look through the Fluxlist archive and we know that any list shows that list activity involves only a tiny proportion of the activities in the statement of purpose.  seems to involve  interpersonal chat, a small amount of correspondence for creating projects, and people displaying their own work. We do not believe this to be bad. We are unhappy that this seems to be all there is on the list. This is not nostalgia or historicism. We are not the living members of the group performing live work. We are Mr. Chirot. We know that most Fluxus artists stirring bones in the graveyard do not discuss their festivals. There is a good reason for this. The original Fluxus artists know what we have read over the past months. their own history because they were own history at Ken Friedman, there. There have been times when Fluxus PROPORTION Fluxus artists Fluxus artists Fluxus artists conversation were interested in discussing ideas, documentation and critical or historical writing. Most of the original artists enjoyed those kinds of who did that kind of work  From what we have heard, Mr. Bowman would have experienced the largest amount of activity different kinds of conversation among the artists on Fluxlist in the past. at other times, especially when included. Dick Higgins and we are Mr. Chirot.  From what we have and when Henry Flynt, and were more active than he is criticism, or theory now. We, are commenting on the list. We are Dave-Baptiste, subscribed to Fluxlist because a friend told us and are dead.that Fluxlist is a forum that welcomes discussions significantly less than 5% of Fluxus history along with issues in contemporary. However, and in publishing criticism and inquiry on intermedia.seen, this is not often the case. Discussions of Jackson Mac Low history, occupy a tiny fraction of list volume -  List members seem to consider that this has been the case on the web at the suggestion that we discuss these kinds of issues from time to time  We gather a bad idea is a list archive . Chirot seems to think that we Instead of sending them from the digest as though we are reading summaries. We are nota complete transcript of all list transmissions. one at a time, the list software gathers several into a bundle and sends them in one go like We base our views on a newspaper or magazine. We read everything that there is. All list members read Fluxlist Digest. George Maciunas writes: it seems odd to critique from a digest rather than from a place of direct participation-- a watchdog operation? covert directives?--one can't help but play and wonder-- is secret fluxus a sort of research group on fluxus, its history and manifestations in the present? and what does secret fluxus do in this reagrd? We hope this letter has answered these questions. We believe that engaging ourselves directly in the work is a place of direct participation. Sincerely, Secret Fluxus >From the welcome letter to Fluxlist: >The Purpose of Fluxlist< The purpose of Fluxlist is to examine and consider the range of concerns that typify Fluxus and intermedia. This might include such topics as: We are interested in the rich web of circumstances and ideas that Fluxus represents as well as in the historical Fluxus. The past four decades of  Fluxus activity gave pointers and signals. Members are welcome to develop  Fluxlist topics as they deem appropriate. We hope that Fluxlist will become a premier forum for conversation and interaction on these topics. We want to create a rich locus for the exchange   of information on the theory and practice of what Dick Higgins termed the arts of the new mentality and the intermedia art forms. Fluxlist offers a forum for considering the early history of media and intermedia ideas that have now taken on a rich identity of their own.  It is also a forum for considering the rich ecological framework within  which these distinct media and intermedia still intersect.  Fluxlist operates within the concept of the Fluxus laboratory. It is open  to the history of ideas and the archeology of developments that are not  always evident in single-discipline discussions or the framework of single  media. All kinds of discussion and participation are welcome. >Invitation with suggestions< We actively invite notes, comments, and contributions on any of the subjects or topics listed. Essays, letters, or lengthy reports of topical subjects  are welcome, along with conversation and discussion on prior posts. Along with the obvious invitation to historians and theorists of the past, we encourage active artists to present, discuss, and theorize their work. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool new emoticons http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/myemo Allan Revich