I suppose while the playful Fluxus artists sought to change political and social perception through blurring the line between art and life- the Situationists sought to expose the cultural emptiness of the advanced capitalist society.
I'm still fairly confused as to what the Situationists achieved and how the Situationist terms such as "derive" and "psychogeography" were used in relation to their work. Perhaps it is bad of me to be comparing Fluxus to S.I as I'm having difficulties understanding and separating the intention of each movement.
However, the transformation of S.I from an avant-garde artist collective to a "political agitation troop" is of great interest to me and despite the confusion, I look forward to learning more of S.I's achievements and practice.
fluxus started in 1963.
ReplyDeletebe careful of terminology - happening are different to fluxus events. fluxus would often stage multiple events at the same time and maybe this is where the confusion with terminology lies.
Oh, I recently had to do research on Fluxus for my painting theory class and it seemed to me that it's beginnings were around 1958 with John Cage's experimental music. I am aware that happenings and event scores are different but the reader made reference to happenings, and I could identify similarities between the situationists and happenings. Perhaps I shouldn't have referred to them as "Fluxus happenings"- Kaprow wouldn't have been pleased. On the other hand, it was late at night and I had the tired crazies....forgive me!
ReplyDeleteMy confusion on SI has been cleared up now since we discussed it in class.