Why the fluxiness project?

It’s a set of questions as much as anything else…

Is it that difficult to be ‘An Artist’, does one have to be touched by a magic power to produce a work of art? No?

Can anyone do it then?

Is art only ‘art’ if it’s in a frame? In a gallery?

And is art ‘art’ if whoever’s looking at it doesn’t know that’s what it’s supposed to be? If the person looking at a thing doesn’t view herself as a person observing a work of art, then what does that make the object viewed? Is it still art if it’s happened upon?

If it’s ‘undisclosed’? Does it still remain a piece of art even when it’s got no sign, saying what it is, or who made it?

Then is everything art?

Surely not. Everything ‘beautiful’ then? Is everything beautiful ‘art’?

But what’s ‘beautiful’?

These kind of questions, repeated endlessly in the twentieth and twenty-first century by artists, art critics and other, normal people, need to be asked.

Unfortunately, they’re also the same questions that can lead to people disappearing up their own arses.

In Early to Mid Sixties New York, The Fluxus Group created art that was accessible, affordable,and could be produced by anyone at all, with only the simplest of instructions.

What you see on these pages is a re-examination of one particular work – ‘Spacial Poem no. 1’ by Mieko Shiomi, an attempt to understand the nature of the artwork by re-presenting it, using the tools available to us now.

Shiomi's original instruction;

'Write a word or words on the enclosed card and place it somewhere. Please tell me the word and the place, which will be edited on the world map.'

was sent to family, colleagues and friends of the artist.

This, in the fluxiness project, has evolved into a downloadable card, with suggested words and space for creation, using volunteers from all over the world, spreading words, a movement of language in space, and presenting them through written documentation, digital photography scanned images and e-mail.

Originally a project for a course on Contemporary performance and live art, there is no reason that the project should stop.