Natural Born Fluxus

Preface to the Book

The following are a series of event scores commemorating remembered small events from childhood that, in retrospect, share something in common with Fluxus activity. I first came up with the idea of scoring these events after corresponding with Ken Friedman related to his event score “Table Stack” which is dated from when he was about seven years old.

I was at first taken aback by the idea of designating childhood events as part of one’s oeuvre but after a good deal of contemplation on the concept I came to realize that many events from childhood presage one’s later life even though, as a child, we have no way to contextualize these events due to our lack of experience and control.

So it is possible then, later in life, with the skills and understanding in hand, to go back and dignify such events by recognizing their place in our artistic formation. By creating an event score for these experiences we integrate our childhood into our adult lives by viewing those experiences from an artistic point of view.

While we all have, by and large experienced the same events and thousands more in our own lives, what are telling are what specific events an artist chooses to select and all of the many others that are left to the side.

When writing these scores for my own book of Fluxus event scores, I decided that it would be a very interesting book project to invite my Fluxus colleagues that I know to participate with their own scores, childhood photos and other surviving documents.

I asked them to recalled their childhoods, identify those events that presage their future Fluxus activities and then commemorate those events with event scores and, if possible, send childhood photographs and other ephemera from their childhoods that fit the project. What we have ended up with is an endearing document of enduring value.

Since the following scores are based on insight into remembered events, all are dated according to when the events first happened and also note the locations where the artists were when the events happened.

Cecil Touchon
Saturday, November 15, 2008

Natural Born Fluxus  includes: Peter Frank, Cecil Touchon, John M. Bennett, Ruud Janssen , Don Boyd, Keith Buchholz, Adam Overton, Sheila E. Murphy, Madawg, Litsa Spathi, Gregory Steel, Mark Block, Christine Tarantino, Allan Revich, Lorraine Kwan, Matthew Rose, Reid Wood, Luc Fierens, Brad Brace, Mary Campbell, Zachary Scott Lawrence, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Eric KM Clark, Brian R. Nickerson, Walter Cianciusi, Neil Horsky, Roger Stevens, Matt Taggart, Anya E.V. Liftig, Yves Maraux, Roland Halbritter.

Keywords

fluxus, artists, history, childhood memories, sentimental, nostalgia, remembrance, momento, keepsake, childhood, event scores, memories, anthology, collaboration, avant garde, art, fluxus event scores, photographs, children, child, diary, instructions