Rsrch Prjct: FLXS

For my independent researching project I will be reading and writing about FLUXUS, primarily because I am incredibly intrigued based on the texts we have read in class, especially the "Manifesto for FLUXUS" by Maciunas. I hope to learn about FLUXUS from an art history perspective but also connect it with the movement's evolution and present-day context. More importantly, I want to examine FLUXUS as a truly shape-shifting creative force that is innately transformative and without limitations to art as a cultural production of past time.

For my research, I have gathered every text the UWM library has available on this movement. Also, the automated lady from the central library called to let me know some additional research materials are now available to me and being held at the East library. I have a lot of very thick books on my desk that I will not be able to read before the end of the year, no less in time to turn the first draft for this paper. Thus, my first assignment is to go through these books to determine which ones I should focus my attention toward. I have books that take more of an art history perspective, a few biographies on George Maciunas, and some books of concrete poetry and collections of FLUXUS work that are half ((non?)art)works and the other half descriptions of artists, FLUXUS scenes throughout the world, and details about various projects. Additionally, I am reading The Society of the Spectacle to get more of an idea of the theoretical underpinnings of the experimental arts movements that emerged around the same time as FLUXUS, specifically the Surrealist and Situationist movements. I have a feeling I will experience quite a struggle to keep my paper under seven pages...

Anne, I might need your help narrowing down my topic for this paper! Granted, I haven't really had a chance to fully immerse myself in these texts, so I am assuming that once I do I will be more able to formulate a more specific topic. As the paper is relatively short and I do have so many books sitting on my desk, it is my first goal to narrow this down. I think you might already have knowledge of some themes or sub-movements within FLUXUS that could point me in a more clear direction.

Schedule for getting this done: Honestly, whenever I have time. This will probably consume the majority of the time that I am not working, in class or getting things done for my other classes. There is no set schedule I could make that I could actually adhere to consistently. I will probably spend my free time this month doing research, first figuring out which books are going to be of most assistance and then documenting the information and sources I want to use within my paper as I develop my understanding of the movement. I will then allow myself the first two weeks of November to get a paper started and develop it enough to meet the requirements of the first draft due. Throughout the construction of the draft I suspect I will still be researching, but will have narrowed down my pile of resources substantially.