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Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. They have been active in visual art and music as well as literature, urban planning, architecture, and design. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily Visual in nature such as Painting, Photography Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Design is used both as a Noun and a Verb. The term is often tied to the various Applied arts and Engineering (See design disciplines Fluxus is often described as intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins in a famous 1966 essay. Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable often confusing inter-disciplinary activities that occur Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist

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History of Fluxus

Early Fluxus

The origins of Fluxus lie in many of the concepts explored by composer John Cage in his experimental music of the 1950s. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> John Milton Cage Jr Cage explored notions of chance in art, through works such as 4' 33", which influenced Lithuanian-born artist George Maciunas. 4′33″ ( Four minutes thirty-three seconds) is a three- movement composition by American Avant-garde composer John Cage George Maciunas ( Jurgis Mačiūnas, pronounced ma-chew-nas; born Kaunas, Lithuania, November 8, 1931; died May 9 [1] Maciunas (1931–1978) organized the first Fluxus event in 1961 at the AG Gallery in New York City and the first Fluxus festivals in Europe in 1962. The City of New York [1]

While Fluxus was named and loosely organized by Maciunas, the Fluxus community began in a small but global network of artists and composers who were already at work when Maciunas met them through poet Jackson Mac Low in the early 1960s. Cage's 1957 to 1959 Experimental Composition classes at the New School for Social Research in New York City were attended by Fluxus founding members Jackson Mac Low, Al Hansen, George Brecht and Dick Higgins, many of whom were working in other media with little or no background in music. This is about the university in New York; for other uses see New School (disambiguation. The City of New York Jackson Mac Low ( September 12, 1922 &ndash December 8, 2004) was an American Poet, Performance artist, Composer Al Hansen ( October 5, 1927 – June 22 1995) was an American artist considered as one of the most important Fluxus figures George Brecht (born George MacDiarmid, New York, United States August 27 1926 is a Minimalist Artist and Composer Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Another cluster of Fluxus artists was connected to each other through Rutgers University. The mid-20th-century art movement Fluxus had a strong association with Rutgers University. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University) is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey Many other artists were invited by Cage to attend his classes unofficially at the New School. Marcel Duchamp and Allan Kaprow (who is credited as the creator of the first "happenings") were also influential to Fluxus. Marcel Duchamp (maʀsɛl dyˈʃɑ̃ (28 July 1887 &ndash 2 October 1968 was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist Allan Kaprow ( August 23, 1927 &ndash April 5, 2006) was an American painter assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts A happening is a performance event or situation meant to be considered as Art. In its early days Fluxus artists were active in Europe (especially in Germany), and Japan as well as in the United States. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Fluxus encouraged a do it yourself aesthetic, and valued simplicity over complexity. Like Dada before it, Fluxus included a strong current of anti-commercialism and an anti-art sensibility, disparaging the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice. For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released Anti-art is the definition of a work which may be exhibited or delivered in a conventional context but makes fun of serious Art or challenges the nature of art As Fluxus artist Robert Filliou wrote, however, Fluxus differed from Dada in its richer set of aspirations, and the positive social and communitarian aspirations of Fluxus far outweighed the anti-art tendency that also marked the group.

In terms of an artistic approach, Fluxus artists preferred to work with whatever materials were at hand, and either created their own work or collaborated in the creation process with their colleagues. Outsourcing part of the creative process to commercial fabricators was not usually part of Fluxus practice. Maciunas personally hand-assembled many of the Fluxus multiples and editions. While Maciunas assembled many objects by hand, he designed and intended them for mass production. Where many multiple publishers produced signed, numbered objects in limited editions intended for sale at high prices, Maciunas produced open editions at low prices. Several other Fluxus publishers produced different kinds of Fluxus editions. The best known of these was Something Else Press, a book publishing company established by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins. Something Else Press was probably the largest and most extensive Fluxus publisher, producing books in editions that ran from 1,500 copies to as many as 5,000 copies, all available at standard bookstore prices.

Fluxus art

The art forms most closely associated with Fluxus are event scores and Fluxus boxes. Fluxus boxes (sometimes called Fluxkits or Fluxboxes) originated with George Maciunas who would gather collections of printed cards, games, and ideas, organizing them in small plastic or wooden boxes.

The idea of the event began in Henry Cowell's philosophy of music. Cowell, a teacher to John Cage and later to Dick Higgins, coined the term that Higgins and others later applied to short, terse descriptions of performable work. The term "score" is used in exactly the sense that one uses the term to describe a music score: a series of notes that allow anyone to perform the work, an idea linked both to what Nam June Paik labeled the "do it yourself" approach and to what Ken Friedman termed "musicality. " While much is made of the do it yourself approach to art, it is vital to recognize that this idea emerges in music, and such important Fluxus artists as Paik, Higgins, or Corner began as composers, bringing to art the idea that each person can create the work by "doing it. " This is what Friedman meant by musicality, extending the idea more radically to conclude that anyone can create work of any kind from a score, acknowledging the composer as the originator of the work while realizing the work freely and even interpreting it in far different ways than the original composer might have done.

Event scores such as George Brecht's "Drip Music", are essentially performance scripts that are usually only a few lines long and consist of descriptions of actions to be performed rather than dialogue. George Brecht (born George MacDiarmid, New York, United States August 27 1926 is a Minimalist Artist and Composer Fluxus artists differentiate event scores from "happenings". A happening is a performance event or situation meant to be considered as Art. Whereas happenings were sometimes complicated, lengthy performances meant to blur the lines between performer and audience, performance and reality, Fluxus performances were usually brief and simple. The Event performances sought to elevate the banal, to be mindful of the mundane, and to frustrate the high culture of academic and market-driven music and art. High culture is a term now used in a number of different ways in Academic discourse whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products mainly in the Other creative forms that have been adopted by Fluxus practitioners include collage, sound art, music, video, and poetry—especially visual poetry and concrete poetry. A collage (From the coller to glue is a work of formal art primarily in the Visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms thus creating a new whole Sound art is a diverse group of Art practices that considers wide notions of Sound, Listening and Hearing as its predominant focus Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Video is the technology of electronically capturing, Recording, processing storing transmitting and reconstructing a sequence of Still images Visual poetry, is Poetry or Art in which the visual arrangement of text images and symbols is important in conveying the intended effect of the work Concrete poetry, pattern poetry or shape poetry is Poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect

Among its early associates were Joseph Beuys, Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, La Monte Young and Yoko Ono who explored media ranging from performance art to poetry to experimental music to film. Joseph Beuys (ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs May 12, 1921 – January 23, Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist Nam June Paik ( July 20, 1932 - January 29, 2006) was a South Korean-born American artist La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14 1935) is an American Composer and musician born in Tokyo on February 18 1933 is a Japanese Artist and Musician. This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation They took the stance of opposition to the ideas of tradition and professionalism in the arts of their time, the Fluxus group shifted the emphasis from what an artist makes to the artist's personality, actions, and opinions. Throughout the 1960s and '70s (their most active period) they staged "action" events, engaged in politics and public speaking, and produced sculptural works featuring unconventional materials. Their radically untraditional works included, for example, the video art of Nam June Paik and the performance art of Beuys. Video art is a type of Art which relies on Moving pictures and is comprised of Video and/or audio data Nam June Paik ( July 20, 1932 - January 29, 2006) was a South Korean-born American artist This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation Joseph Beuys (ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs May 12, 1921 – January 23, The often playful style of Fluxus artists led to their being considered by some little more than a group of pranksters in their early years. Fluxus has also been compared to Dada and aspects of Pop Art and is seen as the starting point of mail art. For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released Pop Art is a visual Art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in parallel in the late 1950s in the United States. Mail art is Art which uses the Postal system as a medium The term mail art can refer to an individual message the medium through which it is sent or Artists from succeeding generations such as Mark Bloch do not try to characterize themselves as Fluxus but create spinoffs such as Fluxpan or Jung Fluxus as a way of continuing some of the Fluxus ideas in a 21st century, post-mail art context. Mark Bloch (born January 23, 1956) also known as Pan PAN Panman Panpost and the Post Art Network is an American multi-media artist from Cleveland Ohio Mail art is Art which uses the Postal system as a medium The term mail art can refer to an individual message the medium through which it is sent or

Fluxus since 1978

After the death of George Maciunas in 1978 a rift opened in the movement between a few collectors and curators who placed Fluxus in a specific time frame (1962 to 1978), and the artists themselves, most of whom continued to see Fluxus as a living entity held together by its core values and world view. Different theorists and historians adopted each of these views. It is common to find writers referring to Fluxus in either the past or the present tense. The question is now significantly more complex due to the fact that many of the original artists who were still living when the controversy arose are now dead.

Some scholars who study Fluxus argue that the unique control that curator Jon Hendricks (not the same-named jazz vocalist) holds over a major historical Fluxus collection (the Gilbert and Lila Silverman collection) has enabled him to influence, through the numerous books and catalogues subsidized by the collection, the view that Fluxus died with Maciunas. For the television executive see John Hendricks For the Australian swimmer see Jon Henricks Jon Hendricks (born Hendricks argues that Fluxus was an historical movement that occurred at a particular time, asserting that such central Fluxus artists as Dick Higgins and Nam June Paik could no longer label themselves as active Fluxus artists after 1978, and that contemporary artists influenced by Fluxus cannot lay claim to be Fluxus artists. Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist Nam June Paik ( July 20, 1932 - January 29, 2006) was a South Korean-born American artist However, the influence of Fluxus continues today in multi-media performances.

Other historians and scholars assert that although Maciunas was a key participant, there were many more, including Fluxus co-founder Higgins, who continued to work within Fluxus after the death of Maciunas. There are a number of post-1978 artists who remain associated with Fluxus. Some were contemporaries of Maciunas who became active in Fluxus after 1978. While there is not a large Fluxus artist community in any single urban center, the rise of the Internet in the 1990s has enabled a vibrant Fluxus community to thrive online. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks Some of the original artists from the 1960s and 1970s remain active in online communities such as the Fluxlist, and other artists, writers, musicians, and performers have joined them in cyberspace. The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Cyberspace &mdash from the Greek el Κυβερνήτης (el kybernētēs steersman governor pilot or rudder &mdash is the global domain of electro-magnetics accessed Fluxus-oriented artists continue to meet in cities around the world to collaborate and communicate in "real-time" and physical spaces.

Artistic philosophies

Fluxus is similar in spirit to the earlier art movement of Dada, emphasizing the concept of anti-art and taking jabs at the seriousness of modern art. For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released Anti-art is the definition of a work which may be exhibited or delivered in a conventional context but makes fun of serious Art or challenges the nature of art [1] Fluxus artists used their minimal performances to highlight their perceived connections between everyday objects and art, similarly to Duchamp in pieces such as Fountain. Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. It is one of the pieces which he called readymades (also known as Found art [1] Fluxus art was often presented in "events", which Fluxus member George Brecht defined as "the smallest unit of a situation". George Brecht (born George MacDiarmid, New York, United States August 27 1926 is a Minimalist Artist and Composer [1] The events consisted of a minimal instruction, opening the events to accidents and other unintended effects. [2] Also contributing to the randomness of events was the integration of audience members into the performances, realizing Duchamp's notion of the viewer completing the art work. [2]

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 not a movement or a style. [3]
  2. Fluxus is intermedia. [4] Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
  3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
  4. Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus.

Fluxus artists

Fluxus artists shared several characteristics including wit and "childlikeness", though they lacked a consistent identity as an artistic community. [5] This vague self-identification allowed the group to integrate a varied group of artists, including a high number of women. The possibility that Fluxus had the most female members of any Western art group up to that point in history is particularly significant considering that Fluxus came on the heels of the white male-dominated abstract expressionism movement. Abstract expressionism was an American post– World War II Art movement. [5] However, despite the designed open-endedness of Fluxus, Maciunas insisted on maintaining unity in the collective. Because of this, Maciunas was accused of expelling certain members for deviating from what he perceived as the goals of Fluxus. [6]

Many artists, writers, and composers have been associated with Fluxus over the years, including:

Scholars, critics, and curators associated with Fluxus

Major collections and archives

Legacy

The work of fluxus has evolved into new art forms such as. The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center is an Avant-garde Arts centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the . .

Selected bibliography

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Rush, 2005, p. 24
  2. ^ a b Rush, 2005, p. 25
  3. ^ Smith
  4. ^ Higgins
  5. ^ a b O'Dell, 1997, p. 43
  6. ^ Oren, 1993, p. 8

External links

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