The Fluxus Blog  -

07 June 08 - 11:25Ray Johnson Videos

http://www.rayjohnson.org/

Excerpt: The Ray Johnson Videos Sampler from Robert Rodger on Vimeo.

Nick Maravell has released all his Ray Johnson footage on a 5 DVD set.
The Ray Johnson footage in the movie, How to Draw A Bunny,  comes from the Maravell tapes.

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01 June 08 - 13:46Postmodernism: A Response from Keri Marion

My friend and fellow artist, Keri Marion wrote a detailed response to my article, Postmodernism Revisited, which I have published (with her permission) in full below. I like her point of view and mostly agree with what she writes. My point about postmodernism being better described as "late modernism", refers more to  philosophical  relativism than to postmodern art and cultural activity.

Here is what Keri has to say: 

"- Pre-modernism was defined by powerful external forces like the church and the monarchy. "Reality" was whatever the chief or the shaman said was "real"."

There's also the fact that we are learning creatures. The "Old Masters" were interpreting space as "reality" in the sense that they were attempting to depict the three-dimensional world in a two-dimensional space. This served both a learning purpose and a functional purpose of recording history visually. Of course, we all understand that the recording was created from one person's perspective, and therefore completely unreal or non-relative in Modernist terms. The Church and Monarchy had great influence on the propaganda that was to be displayed, yes, but truthfully it was the "visual image maker" or "artist" that created the work, therefore in reality it was completely up to (more often than not) "him."

Think Carravagio, the dirty-foot master! The only reason his pieces were commissioned was because he was so skilled at what he did - otherwise, he was more of a nuisance to the Church. Things don't change that much, really.

"- Modernism was characterized by humanist rationality - the search for "universal" truth - think of Descartes, Voltaire, Spinoza, Darwin, etc."

In the quest for learning and exploring, as humans are naturally driven to do, Modernism found itself in the midst of a technological revolution: Industry. Of course the Modernists started to explore their reality in a flat way. Why continue working in three dimensions when you can consider the medium itself, offering a new sort of validity? The Modernists, like every era, were seeking Truth. They were no longer interested in depicting pictorial images because the "truth" was that "this is a canvas" or "this is paint from a tube" or "this is wire" or any sort of self-referencing material is what it is and nothing more than that.

"- Postmodernism in my view isn't really "post" modernism at all, but a term used to describe late modernism."

I believe Postmodernism actually is Postmodernism. It is clear to me that the ideas presented in Contemporary Art (the genre, not the timespace) are, in fact, established from a different point of reference and in that Postmodernists seek a different truth than Modernists. In some ways Postmodernists can revisit the Old Master philosophy of "pictorial art" but then take it further: dissect it, rearrange it, use it in different contexts, etc. There are some crossovers in every era - some people working way ahead of their times and other people working way behind the times. Either way, one can clearly see a shift in art-making since 1970.


"1) Eclecticism - there is no longer the need to find the "One Right Way", or the Universal Truth. Every person has their own version of what is real. ***This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that all versions are equally valid*** I think that this is what you (rightly) object to."

I think this clearly marks the transition from Modernism to Postmodernism. The term I've like to use in the past is "metahistorical" meaning in Postmodernism we can't say "this is truth" or "that is truth" because we recognize the perspective. What is truth for me isn't truth for you. We have our own version of what is real because reality is conceived by our experiences. In other words, we see with our experiences, not with our eyes. That marks the biggest, most solid difference between work made today and work made 400 years ago. And yes, it gets a little muddy here and there because every era had free-thinkers.

I do agree that the definitions of these things are "high minded parlour games" but at the same time I think it's fun to discuss. Thanks for giving me an excuse!

Keri Marion

Make Nonsense out of Something
http://www.kerimarion.com

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13 May 08 - 20:23Postmodernism Revisited

There are several ways that postmodernism has been defined. One of the ways that it has been defined is as troubling to me as it is to many PoMo detractors. That being so-called "moral relativism". When human beings can no longer tell right from wrong we cease being human beings. I think that view is a corruption of postmodernism. Just because everyone has their own version of reality does not mean that each view is of equal value. If someone's reality is that it is OK for people to suffer needlessly - well my reality is that that person is wrong and should be stopped. But... for me postmodernism is mostly a descriptive term for the era that we live in.

Here is how I would describe it:

- Pre-modernism was defined by powerful external forces like the church and the monarchy. "Reality" was whatever the chief or the shaman said was "real".

- Modernism was characterized by humanist rationality - the search for "universal" truth - think of Descartes, Voltaire, Spinoza, Darwin, etc.

- Postmodernism in my view isn't really "post" modernism at all, but a term used to describe late modernism.

It includes two broad, basic, concepts.

1) Eclecticism - there is no longer the need to find the "One Right Way", or the Universal Truth. Every person has their own version of what is real. ***This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that all versions are equally valid*** I think that this is what you (rightly) object to.

2) Baudrillard's "simulacrum" - the copy without an original. This can best be seen in American television. TV shows an idealized fictional reality which people then emulate and which television then reflects back to them again. Another way of thinking about this is as a hall of mirrors, an endless reflection of reflections.

Beyond those two key factors postmodern philosophy becomes very muddled and confused as it begins to get tied up in knots. It becomes completely useless as a basis for anything besides high-minded parlour games. I mean once people start using rational, logically constructed arguments to "prove" that logic and rationality don't matter, the whole exercise becomes ridiculous.

From an artists point of view postmodernism is really just something to have fun with. Artistic eclecticism opens the doors to all kinds of creativity. Video art, sound art, language poetry, etc. are all examples of postmodern artistic expression. Also, since art has always tried to reflect back an interpretation of the artists reality, the simulacrum is already "built-in" to an artists life and, I think, always has been.

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28 April 08 - 21:20Ray Johnson

Ray Jay should have been on my list. I will get to him soon. In the meantime, you can read my earlier essay about him here.

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28 April 08 - 21:12Energy That Matters: Marcel Duchamp

• Jean Baudrillard
  
• Charles Bukowski
  
• John Cage
• Leonard Cohen
• Marcel Duchamp

It has taken me a while to get to this entry. Duchamp, for me, ranks with John Cage as a figure of such incredible importance to the arts that it is simply not possible to sum him up in a few short sentences. At least not with a sense of justice. But then, since I did it for Cage, I'll do it for Duchamp too! Just remember that this is only the twenty second elevator speech version. Duchamp was active in the early part of the 20th century primarily as a painter. While even his paintings were revolutionary for their time (he included the dimension of time, taking cubism to another level - and cubism was already considered revolutionary), his real revolution came with his exhibition of the "ready-made" as a work of art. He turned a urinal 90 degrees, called it "Fountain", and signed it "R. Mutt", he brought a shovel into a gallery and called it, "in advance of a broken arm", and he exhibited a found bottle rack as a finished sculpture. His actions angered and confused the general public, and also most of the artistic elite. People ridiculed him and his work. But these simple actions by an artist changed art irrevocably and forever. These works forced people to ask not only what is "good art" or "bad art", but "what is art"? What can be art? What makes an object art anyway? Who can make art? Who can decide what is or is not art? Marcel Duchamp changed not only the world of art. He changed the world.

• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol

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17 February 08 - 13:59Energy That Matters: Leonard Cohen

• Jean Baudrillard
  
• Charles Bukowski
  
• John Cage
• Leonard Cohen

He was never closely associated with Fluxus, and his work falls pretty neatly into the modernist traditions of art and writing. So, why have I chosen to write about Cohen in The Fluxus Blog? I guess that the first connection that can be made between him and Fluxus is that one could make the argument that as a poet, singer, and songwriter, Leonard Cohen is engaged in the original Intermedia form. What could be more Intermedia than the intersection between poetry, music, and performance? I think that the argument is valid. But it is not overwhelmingly convincing. Fluxus was also about experimentation, humor, and postmodern philosophical ideas. Never-the-less, I think that poetic minstrels, like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, at the dawn of the postmodern era, deserve a place at the Fluxus table. I chose Cohen primarily because of one stanza in one song. The song is Famous Blue Raincoat, and the stanza speaks about a friend who has moved into the desert to build a small home and plans to live off of the land. Cohen says of his friend, "You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record." And for me, this moves Cohen's work outside of the modernist realm and into the realm of postmodern reflections on meaning and language.

• Marcel Duchamp
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol

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07 February 08 - 21:30Energy That Matters: John Cage

• Jean Baudrillard
  
• Charles Bukowski
  
• John Cage
  
  The Godfather of Fluxus. John Cage may never have been a member of the Fluxus movement as it existed under the auspices of George Maciunas, but Cage was a seminal figure for Fluxus and for all postmodern art that came after him. Cage made the observation, that in retrospect seems very simple, but which in its effect on arts and culture was enormous, that music consisted of nothing but sound. One way of composing music was to use the standard European music notation system. But since music was nothing but sound, Cage reasoned that it could be composed using any sounds. Natural sounds, manufactured sounds. Sounds usually thought of as noise. Even silence, and the sounds that occur within a "silent" environment. While artists working around the same time were already looking at paintings as being composed only of paint on canvas, and drawings as being composed purely of marks on paper, Cage opened the door much wider - to art being constructed out of anything that could be sensed by humans. Therefore the role of the artists expanded to include any person who created things that could be sensed by other people. In fact since a musical composition could consist solely of the score for a performance, art could also now exist solely as the score (i.e. Fluxus event scores) for constructing an object, performance, or Intermedia composition.
  
  
• Leonard Cohen
  
• Marcel Duchamp
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol
  

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03 February 08 - 11:23Energy That Matters: Charles Bukowski

• Jean Baudrillard
  
• Charles Bukowski
  
  Bukowski, while contemporary to Fluxus, was never a part of it, and I suspect he would not have wanted to be. Equally, I suspect that the contemporaneous Fluxus people would not have been keen to have him.
  
  Never-the-less, Bukowski is an important figure for understanding the Fluxus Attitude. His poetry insists on two features that are important to Fluxus practice; accessibility and brevity. Bukowski embodies the Fluxus ideal of cutting away superfluous cultural baggage to tell big stories using a few small words. And one does not need to have a multi-volume dictionary handy to understand what he is saying.
  
  
• John Cage
  
• Leonard Cohen
  
• Marcel Duchamp
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol
  

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03 February 08 - 11:06Energy That Matters: Jean Baudrillard

• Jean Baudrillard


Baudrillard may not have invented postmodernism, but he provided one on the best descriptions of it in his book, Simulacra and Simulations. Baudrillard describes a cultural universe in which humanity exists in a perpetual hall of mirrors, epitomized by television and the Internet. The media present us with an idealized world view that we consciously and unconsciously attempt to emulate --- then the media reflects our attempts at mimicry back at us, in an endless loop of copying ourselves copying a non-existent, fictional version of reality.



Baudrillard's postmodern universe is very much in keeping with the Fluxus Attitude, and with Intermedia practices.



• Charles Bukowski
  
• John Cage
  
• Leonard Cohen
  
• Marcel Duchamp
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol
  

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02 February 08 - 12:06Matter and Energy: Energy that Matters

In Alphabetical Order:

• Jean Baudrillard
  
• Charles Bukowski
  
• John Cage
  
• Leonard Cohen
  
• Marcel Duchamp
  
• Allen Ginsberg
  
• Albert Einstein
  
• Karl Marx
  
• Jean-Paul Sartre
  
• Andy Warhol
  

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31 January 08 - 20:32Karen Eliot

Karen Eliot is a name that refers to an individual human being who can be anyone. The name is fixed, the people using it aren't. The purpose of many different people using the same name is to create which no one in particular is responsible and to practically examine western philosophical notions of identity, individuality, originality, value and truth. Anyone can become Karen Eliot simply by adopting the name, but they are only Karen Eliot for the period in which they adopt the name.
Karen Eliot was materialized, rather than born, as an open context in the summer of 1985. When one becomes Karen Eliot one's previous existence consists of the acts other people have undertaken using the name. When one becomes Karen Eliot one has no family, no parents, no birth. Karen Eliot was not born, s/he was materialized from social forces, constructed as a means of entering the shifting terrain that circumscribes the 'individual' and society. The name Karen Eliot can be strategically adopted for a series of actions, interventions, exhibitions, texts, etc. This text is unattributed by design.

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26 December 07 - 12:48Fluxus, Philosophy, Art, and Bullshit

Sometimes people say things that force us to reevaluate our values. My friend Nicolas recently posted something on a mailing list that touched me deeply and forced me to rethink and restate my values. He attacked intellectualism in art and life and argued for a world view that embraced love and the artisan's approach to crafting artworks. I have always valued intellectualism, but had difficulty formulating its defense. This was my response:

My head is full of intellectual bullshit. Sometimes I welcome it. Sometimes I try to drive it out. Fluxus helps me do both.

I sometimes see Fluxus as being a continuation of dada, but with less nihilism --- or at least with a much more playful and optimistic view of nihilism. Perhaps something closer to Sartre (Existentialism is a Humanism) than to Nietzsche or Baudrillard. A kind of hedonistic nihilism, but one that leaves room to acknowledge love and suffering

I admit to being a nihilist myself --- nothing matters and nothing can change the fact that nothing matters. But (and this is important!) while we experience our existence in the universe everything matters ...and nihilism does not matter because it is useless as a way of living. For as long as we are alive --- Love is real. Pain is real. Suffering is real. Compassion is real. It doesn't matter that it doesn't matter because it matters while it matters, even if it doesn't really matter 'in the end'. I try to reconcile these two polarities. Fluxus helps. Sartre helps

.

I suppose that fault can be found in this response. It uses intellectualism to defend itself for one thing. One might also argue that by embracing polarities I am avoiding having to stand my ground and fight for what I believe in. But for me, the response really does stand for what I believe in. Life is full of contradictions and sometimes the only way to live it is to embrace dualisms.

Nicolas Carras is an artist living in Paris France. His work can be seen at nicolasound.com and also on the site of the SOS-Art Collective.

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02 December 07 - 18:03Letter to an Art Student

Hi Thaddeus,

I will answer your questions as best I can.

What in your opinion is the fluxus movement truly about ?

Your question makes a common but erroneous assumption. That is that Fluxus was a "movement". The idea of "movements" make the study of art history easier for art students and art historians, but Fluxus is not and never really was an art historical movement. It has been packaged as a movement for collectors of Fluxus objects and a few Fluxus artists have encouraged this in order to further their own careers or in an attempt to position themselves within an art historical context.
Fluxus was a way of being and a way of seeing the world and reacting to it. As such it shares a lot with dada, but without the same degree of nihilism and negativity. Fluxus continues to exist today because the attitudes and approaches to life that are embodied in Fluxus continue to exist.

The Fluxus artistic philosophy can be expressed as a synthesis of four key factors that define the majority of Fluxus work:

1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is much more than an art history movement, or a style locked between a pair of dates.


2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to to see what happens when different media intersect.

They use found & everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.

3. Fluxus should be simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.


4. Fluxus should be fun. If it isn't fun, then it isn't Fluxus

As these attitudinal approaches probably predate Fluxus, I think it is fair to say that Fluxus existed long before it was named. And it will continue long after it is forgotten too.

Why do you feel the fluxus movement is important in modern society ?

Fluxus is not important in modern society. Should it be?

Do you have any old articles or information on the fluxus art movement that would help in my thesis ?

Nothing

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17 November 07 - 21:43Arts Incohérents

Before there was Fluxus. Before there was dada. There were the Arts Incohérents. Their exhibit in Paris, L'Exposition des Arts Incohérents, in 1893 was attended by over 2000 people including the famous Impressionist painters Renoir, Pissarro, and Manet. The composer Richard Wagner was also in attendance. All of these people were drawn to the Left Bank apartment of the young writer Jules Lévy. Lévy exhibited work by Jean Louis Eugène Emile Cohl (Emile Courtet ) and other artists who used absurdity, satire, and nonsense as tools to upset the social order and artistic orthodoxy of the day. It is incredible to think that all this was happening in the latter part of the 19th century, at a time when even the Impressionists were considered as radicals!

Twenty years before Kasimir Malevich exhibited his Black Square on a White Field the poet Paul Bilhaud exhibited his all black satirical drawing Negroes Fighting In a Cellar at Night. The Incoherents were also using found objects in their art, and spontaneous actions, events, and techniques in their work.

The world wasn't quite ready for these artists who were so far ahead of their time. But in many ways they paved the way for the dadaists who followed them nearly 30 years later.

• http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.3.INCOHERANTS.htm


• http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/counter/html/body_incohere.html

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14 November 07 - 11:29Fluxus Collaboration

Working collaboratively has always been a component of Fluxus praxis.

Early Fluxus collaborations included the Yam Festival initiated by George Brecht and Robert Watts, and the New York Audio-Visual Group organized by Al Hansen and Dick Higgins. Audience participation has also been an important part of many Fluxus events and performances. Mail Art, which has and continues to have, a close asscoiation with Fluxus, is also often collaborative in nature. Particularly with "add and pass" projects in which a piece is started by the first participant and modified and mailed on by each additional participant ...sometimes (but not always) arriving back at the originators address in one form or another.

Today, collaborative work continues to flourish in the Fluxus community. Add and pass mail art continues to be a popular collaboration. The advent of the internet has also facilitated a multitude of new collaborative opportunities. There are collaborative blogs for narrative writing, poetic writing,visual art, and visual poetry. Artists are also collaborating on multimedia and intermedia projects online. Online collaboration is being facilitated by technologies as simple as e-mail, and as complex as advanced social networking software and websites like Facebook.

A few sites worth visiting for examples as listed below:

• Digital Collaborations


• Nicolasound Collaborations (Allan Revich, John Bennett, Nicolas Carras


• Networked_Performance Blog

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15 October 07 - 22:09Mail Art

Mail Art has always been an important part of Fluxus, and Fluxus has historically always had a symbiotic relationship with Mail Art. While much Mail Art is not Fluxus, many, if not most, Fluxus, and Fluxus-inspired artists are also mail artists.

Here are a few site of Fluxus and Fluxus-inspired mail artists that I know:

Mick Boyle's Mail Art Blog

A1 Mail Art

The Mail Art Page

IUAMA & TAM

Frips Mail Art

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05 October 07 - 14:43"Art Always Wins" ~Al Hansen

Red Dots Venus

“Several times I have pushed a piano off a building (first was in Berlin, 1945). It’s a wonderful experience…the only path to unique and personal art is through the door of experimentation. Destruction is a perfectly logical arena to perform in….”
~ Letter to Art and Artists magazine (June 1966)

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31 August 07 - 17:09Nam June Paik Quote

"People talk about 'the future' being tomorrow, the future is now."
in an interview with Artnews in 1995

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