Editing Fluxus (section)

===Utopian communities===
A number of artists in the group were interested in setting up Flux communes, intending to 'bridge the gap between the artist community and the surrounding society'<ref name="Danielle">{{Cite web |url=http://www.wordsinspace.net/urban-media-archaeology/2011-fall/2011/10/11/project-proposal-2/ |title=The History of Artists and Art Production in SoHo, Danielle |date=11 October 2011 |access-date=2 July 2012 |archive-date=9 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209090851/http://www.wordsinspace.net/urban-media-archaeology/2011-fall/2011/10/11/project-proposal-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The first of these, La Cédille qui Sourit or ''The [[Cedilla]] That Smiles'',<ref>Harren, Natilee. "La cédille qui ne finit pas: Robert Filliou, George Brecht, and Fluxus in Villefranche". ''Getty Research Journal'', no. 4 (2012), pp. 127–143.</ref> was set up in [[Villefranche-sur-Mer]], France, by [[Robert Filliou]] and George Brecht, 1965–1968. Intended as an 'International Centre of Permanent Creation', the shop sold Fluxkits and other small wares as well as housing a 'non-school', boasting the motto "A carefree exchange of information and experience. No students, no teachers. Perfect licence, at times to listen at times to talk."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://catalogue.drouot.com/ref-drouot/lot-ventes-aux-encheres-drouot.jsp?id=1150365 |title=Fluxkit documenting the project |access-date=4 July 2012 |archive-date=6 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006102516/http://catalogue.drouot.com/ref-drouot/lot-ventes-aux-encheres-drouot.jsp?id=1150365 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1966, Maciunas, Watts and others took advantage of new legislation drafted to regenerate the area of Manhattan known as 'Hell's Hundred Acres', soon to become rebranded as [[SoHo]], allowing artists to buy live/work spaces in an area that had been blighted due to a proposed 18-lane expressway along [[Broome Street]].<ref name="Danielle" /> Led by Maciunas, plans were laid to start a series of real-estate developments in the area, designed to create an artists' community within a few streets of the FluxShop on Canal Street. 
<blockquote>
'Maciunas wanted to establish collective workshops, food-buying cooperatives and theaters to link the strengths of various media together and bridge the gap between the artist community and the surrounding society'</blockquote>

The first warehouse, intended to house Maciunas, Watts, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Jonas Mekas, La Monte Young and others, was located on Greene Street. Likening these communities to the soviet [[Kolkhoz]]s, Maciunas didn't hesitate to adopt the title 'Chairman of Bldg. Co-Op'{{sfn|Kellein|2007|p=131}} without first registering an office or becoming a member of the New York State Association of Realtors.{{sfn|Kellein|2007|p=132}} FluxHousing Co-Operatives continued to redevelop the area over the next decade, and were widened to include plans to set up a ''FluxIsland''- a suitable island was located near Antigua, but the money to buy and develop it remained unforthcoming- and finally a performance arts centre called the ''FluxFarm'' established in [[New Marlborough]], Massachusetts. The plans were continually dogged by financial problems, constant run-ins with the New York authorities, and eventually resulted, on 8 November 1975, in Maciunas being severely beaten by thugs sent by an unpaid electrical contractor.{{sfn|Kellein|2007|p=147}}