Subject: Re: exhibition
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 11:31:42 +0100
From: "Theoretical Phys. MSc accnt. 13" <tpmsc13-AT-ic.ac.uk>


Re William's latest posting:
OK, let me describe what I do, I have been painting and
drawing, starting from a sudden impulse or urge I got
some 10-12 years ago. I also write, not that many poems but
more political and/or polemical stuff. I do not consider myself
an artist in any way. Partly because that word for my has
some unpleasant association (pretentiousness, snobs, etc.):
of course this is not "fair" or rational, but it is all the same
what I feel. For the same reason I have been very reluctant to
exhibit in the past (and William, I do not think your reasons
1-3 differ from what you call bullshit), but have no objection
to show my "work" to friends. I learn about the pictures and
texts not by seeing them in different lighting, on different
walls, or in different typefaces or anything like that, but by
putting them next to other pictures/texts and by hearing what
other people see in them. For this reason I particularly value
collective work and games. My reason to participate in any
kind of manifestation would be to find kindred spirits with
whom I can engage in collective activity at a later stage.

Re inclusion/exclusion:
Somebody (Stuart?) suggested earlier that we could use
some questionnaire to judge who to include and who not. In
order for it to be a truely surrealist manifestation it is
important we all subscribe to  a few basic points of view, we
can disagree on anything else to our hearts content (and in
fact I hope we do: thats why I keep mentioning heterogenous
opposition), but we must agree on a few things to be called
surrealists at all. Without that surrealism would just be
another aesthetics like cubism, minimalism or social realism.
The way I see surrealism differeing (and having any value
today) is by its vast, sweeping scope! Hopefully nobody
think I'm proposing some kind of orthodoxy here, because
that is definitely NOT the case!

Re technical bits:
Unfortunately I do not have any html or java skills, though
presumably I could pick up the essentials of html rather
quickly with a little help. And I do not have access to a
scanner. What I do have access to is a terminal with
netscape2, which means that I can atleast put texts on to the
web site.
I talked to Kenneth from the Leeds group last night and they
are planning to buy a scanner, in which case they would be
able to scan pictures and save them on a (Machintosh) disk.
Presumably some of us would be able to read that disk and
put its content on the site, no? How many of you do have
access to scanners of sufficicenlty good quality?
All the various groups and individuals not on the net need to
do then is just to get some snapshots of their work and send
them off to somebody with a scanner and we're in business!
Nobody should be excluded simply for lack of internet
access....

Frank