TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT Fluxus: Thoughts, Observations, and Suggestions from the Front Lines
2005; Routledge; Volume: 39; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2691-5529
Autores Tópico(s)Museums and Cultural Heritage
ResumoAbstract Fluxus embraces a rich network of directions and implications. This essay suggests that it is impossible to understand some aspects of Fluxus by using traditional history as the only approach. Understanding the complex qualities of Fluxus as more than a recitation of documents and dates requires a different approach. The author states that direct participation in Fluxus activities must supplement other forms of inquiry for deep understanding. The typical Fluxus work is a conceptualization of art and artistic processes. These are rooted in direct participatory engagement. We find this argument in the writings of the Fluxus artists when they call for what Dick Higgins labels exemplativist practice. Fluxus implies-even demands-creative and playful interaction in which the viewer moves from a passive to an active role. In this shift, the viewer becomes the co-producer of works, creating new objects, manifestations and experiences. Introduction give you permission, but not to do anything. JOHN CAGE OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES, I HAVE STUDIED FLUXUS AND introduced Fluxus to students in my classes. Along the way, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with traditional scholarly or historical approaches to teaching the subject of Fluxus. We can certainly learn facts about the nature and historical activities of Fluxus just as we can-and do-for other important historical groups or movements. But something else needs to be included to learn about and understand Fluxus. That something else is the Fluxus spirit and its participatory nature. While in much of my own work as a scholar I have tried to make good use of traditional historical methods (writing a doctoral dissertation on Fluxus, followed by an historical monograph for San Diego State University Press), scholarly approaches fail to disclose important aspects of Fluxus, perhaps the most important. One of the things that bother me the most is that historical approaches by themselves cannot communicate the nature or joy of Fluxus type work. Along with more traditional approaches, I feel that we must initiate other means of learning from and responding to the Fluxus project, using a worldview in keeping with the lessons of Fluxus itself. To approach Fluxus in an educational environment, whether an art history classroom or a studio space, what first needs to be done is to communicate the work as a lens through which to look at the world. I have come to realize that one cannot approach Fluxus through solely traditional historical methods or models to thoroughly communicate what is interesting or significant in Fluxus. Fluxus does not bring life or meaning to a classroom from the student's awareness of its historical activities, but from its existence as a kind of permission to experiment, to have fun and to take chances. Fluxus fully begins to resonate for students in the fullest way when we intertwine historical knowledge and living engagement, linking thought and action. The work should be seen as something to do, and doing them gives us our best sense of the future possibilities that Fluxus holds. For this reason, I would propose that you start this essay by considering these comments as part of a performance. This is a performance-or perhaps an experience of-Benjamin Patterson's piece Seminar I. Here is the score: SEMINAR I The general outline of the seminar is explained to the participants. Models of the particular genre of activity (compositions) that will be examined are demonstrated and rehearsed by the participants. Participants are divided into discussionwork groups. The characteristics, problems, etc. of these models are discussed and new activities are composed within the genre. Each work group presents its new compositions to the seminar. General discussion, if any. Using Patterson's Seminar J as a model, here is the general outline of our performance: FIRST, I will present some ideas and issues of the genre of activity that can be loosely grouped under the name Fluxus. …
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