Fluxus Manifesto, 1963, by George MaciunasPoster to Festum Fluxorum Fluxus 1963.
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product.[1][2] Fluxus is known for experimental contributions to different artistic media and disciplines and for generating new art forms. These art forms include intermedia, a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins;[3][4][5][6]conceptual art, first developed by Henry Flynt,[7][8] an artist contentiously associated with Fluxus; and video art, first pioneered by Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell.[9][10][11] Dutch gallerist and art critic Harry Ruhé describes Fluxus as "the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties".[12][13]
They produced performance "events", which included enactments of scores, "Neo-Dada" noise music, and time-based works, as well as concrete poetry, visual art, urban planning, architecture, design, literature, and publishing. Many Fluxus artists share anti-commercial and anti-art sensibilities. Fluxus is sometimes described as "intermedia". The ideas and practices of composer John Cage heavily influenced Fluxus, especially his notions that one should embark on an artwork without a conception of its end, and his understanding of the work as a site of interaction between artist and audience. The process of creating was privileged over the finished product.[14] Another notable influence were the readymades of Marcel Duchamp, a French artist who was active in Dada (1916 – c. 1922). George Maciunas, largely considered to be the founder of this fluid movement, coined the name Fluxus in 1961 to title a proposed magazine.[15]
^Higgins, Dick. 2001. "Intermedia" Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. Randall Packer and Ken Jordan, eds. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 27–32.
^Higgins, Dick. 1984. Horizons: The Poetics and Theory of the Intermedia. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press
^Hannah B. Higgins, "The Computational Word Works of Eric Andersen and Dick Higgins", Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Digital Computing in the Experimental Arts, Hannah Higgins & Douglas Kahn, eds., pp. 271–281
^Flynt, Henry. 1961. "Concept Art: Innperseqs." Reprinted in 1963: An Anthology. La Monte Young, ed. New York: Jackson Mac Low and La Monte Young, np.
^Flynt, Henry. 1963. "Essay: Concept Art: Provisional Version." An Anthology. La Monte Young, ed. New York: Jackson Mac Low and La Monte Young, np.
^Hanhardt, John and Ken Hakuta. 2012. Nam June Paik: Global Visionary. London and Washington, D.C.: D. Giles, Ltd., in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
^Fundacio Joan Miro. 1979. Vostell. Environments Pintura Happenings Dibuixos Video de 1958 a 1978. Barcelona: Fundacio Joan Miro.
^ abRuhé, Harry [nl]. 1979. Fluxus, the Most Radical and Experimental Art Movement of the Sixties Amsterdam: Editions Galerie A.
^Zurbrugg, Nicholas. 1990. "A Spirit of Large Goals." – Dada and Fluxus at Two Speeds. Fluxus! Nicholas Zurbrugg, Francesco Conz, and Nicholas Tsoutas, eds. Brisbane, Australia: Institute of Modern Art, p. 29.
^Higgins, Dick. 1992. "Fluxus: Theory and Reception." Lund Art Press, vol II, no. 2, pp. 25–46.
^Higgins, Dick. 1998. "Fluxus: Theory and Reception." The Fluxus Reader, Ken Friedman, ed. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Academy Editions, pp. 218–236.
^Friedman, Ken. 2011. "Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas." Fluxus and the Essential Qualities of Life. Jacquelynne Baas, editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 35.