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Tentatively, Convenience's Reviews > Manifestos
Manifestos
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AH! The excitement of compiling together a group of manifestos by people that you know to be brimming over w/ enthusiasm & ideas! This must've been so thrilling for the presumed editor, Dick Higgins. & what an amazing collection it is! EXCLAMATION MARK! There's even a "Something Else Manifesto" by Higgins himself. Sometimes, when I see something like this, I'm truly moved to think of how wonderful people can be. I think of my friends etta cetera & her mammoth energy & my friend Shaun Slifer & his great anarchist historification projects. I think of all the loveable people I know & all the things they do to keep life moving along. Thank the holy ceiling light (or candle or inner illumination or whatever) that these manifesto writers exist(ed) & THANK GOODNESS that all the wonderful people I know (like Bruce Stater & Kalie Pierce & Spat Cannon &, &..!) exist too! Notice that there are TWO bears on the cover of this one - presumably b/c it's twice the size of the usual Great Bear Pamphlet.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 20, 2008
– Shelved
March 20, 2008
– Shelved as:
art
March 20, 2008
– Shelved as:
literature
March 20, 2008
– Shelved as:
fluxus
March 20, 2008
– Shelved as:
politics
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Shaun
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Mar 20, 2008 08:01AM
Oh, I think this is the one I have, but I went digging last night and couldn't find it... I don't remember the double bear though. Maybe there are two Manifestos?
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Although I haven't read this volume, I find it pretty difficult not to comment upon a review which praises my very existence so highly. Thank you tENT-- for expressing such joy & for your continued friendship-- for your companionship within the margin & beyond the limits of what is sanctioned in thought, speech, action, & dream.
The manifesto has long been one of my favorite genres-- even the word is marvellous-- to enact, make manifest, embody, call forth, by performative means of discursive magik-- the joint power of word & intensity of vision-- from absolute certainty of the need to construct what is not yet & to bring it into existence through the power of expression.
A truly revolutionary genre-- not just by historical precedent as offspring of the political & aesthetic avant-gardes-- but in the very metaphysics by which it calls forth. Where other performative genres (law, ceremony, diagnosis) remain tied to the ritual enactment of transformations & creations dependent upon codes of social authority, the manifesto calls forth from its own inherent power to construct & realize. In this sense, all manifestos, no matter what their specific content, profoundly embody & express allegiance to the basic priciple of anarchy: that power from above is an illusion designed to foster a lie & to belie the truth of the power within. The joy of the manifesto is the anarchist's joy-- the joy of the manifesto is the constructivist's joy.
Slightly odd to me that as important as manifestos have been to me, I have never actually written one-- something I should very much like to rectify before I leave this world-- the only world to which I profess a sense of belonging-- & one still very much in need of the affirmation of the manifesto.
Perhaps the forum of Cognitive Dissidents might be a place to begin such a project....
The manifesto has long been one of my favorite genres-- even the word is marvellous-- to enact, make manifest, embody, call forth, by performative means of discursive magik-- the joint power of word & intensity of vision-- from absolute certainty of the need to construct what is not yet & to bring it into existence through the power of expression.
A truly revolutionary genre-- not just by historical precedent as offspring of the political & aesthetic avant-gardes-- but in the very metaphysics by which it calls forth. Where other performative genres (law, ceremony, diagnosis) remain tied to the ritual enactment of transformations & creations dependent upon codes of social authority, the manifesto calls forth from its own inherent power to construct & realize. In this sense, all manifestos, no matter what their specific content, profoundly embody & express allegiance to the basic priciple of anarchy: that power from above is an illusion designed to foster a lie & to belie the truth of the power within. The joy of the manifesto is the anarchist's joy-- the joy of the manifesto is the constructivist's joy.
Slightly odd to me that as important as manifestos have been to me, I have never actually written one-- something I should very much like to rectify before I leave this world-- the only world to which I profess a sense of belonging-- & one still very much in need of the affirmation of the manifesto.
Perhaps the forum of Cognitive Dissidents might be a place to begin such a project....
It's a great idea and I've never seen this before. Who is on the list of contributors?If this is mostly about Fluxus statements and manifestos, I'd even like to see the subject opened up to include Dadaist, Surrealist, Supremacist manifestos...hell, thrown in Communist and other political manifestos too.
The list of contributors is: Ay-o
Philip Corner
W.E.B. DuBois Club
Oyvind Fahlström
Robert Filliou
John Giorno
Al Hansen
Dick Higgins
Allan Kaprow
Alison Knowles
Nam June Paik
Diter Rot
Jerome Rothenberg
Wolf Vostell
Robert Watts
Emmett Williams
As for presenting & discussing manifestos via Cognitive Dissidents? I'm all for it. I'll create a new MANIFESTOS folder today & add the 1st topic (if someone else hasn't already).
